It's Just a Dance
by Den3424
Summary: How will Kazuto and Taisuke react when Asuna asks Kazuto to the Fall Dance? Warning for copious amounts of fluff and comedy. Just a three shot AU for all you rom com lovers and Kirisuna shippers out there. For Harvzy too.
1. Chapter 1

**Kirito(exe) Has Stopped Working**

...

 **In a special part of Tokyo, 06:38 AM.**

...

A silver Miata roadster was parked outside the Kirigaya Residence. Its brown haired owner, Ishoyama Taisuke was whistling absentmindedly while lifting a rock in their yard, revealing the brass key underneath it. He smirked, opening the door before walking inside the house.

Midori and Suguha looked at him with widening black eyes, eating breakfast in their kitchen as Taisuke froze in place like a statue. He spoke slowly, "Uh...I'm just here to give Kazu a ride."

"Ever heard of knocking?" Sugu asked sarcastically, eating some more of her oatmeal.

"He's in his bedroom." Her mother noted sternly, seeing the boy hold the key to their house in his hand. He then slid it across the table awkwardly.

Taisuke nodded, before walking up the stairs to Kazuto's room. Poking his head inside for a second and realizing that he was asleep, Taisuke proceed to run back down the stairs and speak to them again, "This may be very loud. I apologize in advance."

As Midori and Sugu looked at each other confusedly, Taisuke put his hands on his hips in Kazuto's room, "All right man. It's the first day of the semester, I've got to get you to school."

Kazuto said nothing, rolling over on his pillow as his taller friend sighed, "Dude. Get. Up. I'm not going to ask you again."

Silence.

Taisuke rolled his orange eyes, "Okay. Don't say I didn't warn you." He returned from their kitchen with a pestered mother and daughter in it holding a metal pot and a wooden spoon. A loud clanging noise filled Kazuto's room as Taisuke tried to wake him up, "Get up!"

He was still soundly asleep. Taisuke threw off Kazuto's bed sheets, picking him up easily with his boxing honed muscles. The sleeping teen was tossed onto the hardwood floor, crumpling onto it while still snoring lightly, "Jeez, come on work with me."

Taisuke poked his stomach with his foot while warning him, "Last chance."

Seeing that this was going nowhere, Taisuke toted large amplifiers from the Kirigaya's living room close to Kazuto's bed. Placing them on the ground and wheeling them to an electrical socket, seven amplifiers sat awaiting to be used. Taisuke chuckled to himself, hooking them up to his computer, "Oh god, he's going to kill me."

The intruder giggled to himself, opening up a window on Kazuto's central computer screen. Taisuke typed into the search bar: loudest Russian music on the internet. The video he decided to play was named thusly: Soviet National Anthem. (Prepare yourself)

Anticipation rose in his young heart, hearing the seven amps hum in unison as he turned up every nob to their maximum potential, the feedback whirring and the electricity echoing. Taisuke took off the upper part of his school uniform, practicing his Russian accent quickly before picking up a keyboard on Kazuto's desktop, carrying it to an amplifier.

Taisuke stood on top of one of the amplifiers, before hitting the spacebar on the keyboard he was holding.

The whole house seemed to shake under the sheer volume of the music, the amplifiers blaring so loudly that Kazuto was literally blown off the ground towards the wall of his room. Smacking against it, his ears seemed to be assaulted from every angle, Kazuto's black eyes widening so much that his eyeballs could possibly pop out of his skull.

Taisuke yelled so loudly in his Russian accent while flexing his muscles, that his voice seemed to be raised by the music blaring, "Comrades! Today is the epic day that begins our young journey into a new semester! Battles will be lost, wars will be won! As long as we stick together, as brothers and sisters, all will prevail!"

Kazuto's body shook under the sheer power of the triumphant Russian music, and a red flag seemed to wave behind Taisuke as he delivered his speech, "No matter the cost! We will always succeed in this semester's tribulations! Whether it be homework, projects, or bullies! Even essays! We shall overcome all! All! All shall tremble underneath our brother-like power! Nothing shall ever stop us! Nothing! Our strength is our brotherhood! Peace! Freedom!...Victory!"

It appeared as though Kazuto had a small seizure, his skinny body waving like Taisuke's imagined Russian flag on his bed.

Taisuke hit the spacebar and paused the video, the outrageously loud music ceasing, "Seriously dude. Get up."

Kazuto rubbed his ears while yelling, "What?! What?!"

"Come on it wasn't even that loud."

Kazuto blinked while trying to recover from the sudden attack, "Ishoyama. Why do you do this to me?"

"Because I can." Taisuke picked up his black school uniform, the exact same to the one he himself was wearing, "Throw this on." The bankers son ordered, tossing it to him after putting his shirt back on, "We're leaving in fifteen minutes come on."

"What? I can't hear you!"

Taisuke winced and threw his shoulders up painfully, "Ow! Kazu, don't yell so loudly." The Ishoyama opened the door to his room, "Get dressed come on let's go!"

He ran downstairs, seeing Midori and Sugu clamp their hands over their ears, "Is it over?!" Sugu yelled.

Taisuke nodded while opening up their fridge, "Yup. Got him up an' running, should be going soon. Wanna ride from me?"

She looked at him after removing her hands from her ears, "Get into a car with you? I'd rather be shot."

"Suguha!" Midori exclaimed.

"What? I was being honest..." She murmured quietly with a shrug.

Midori whispered to her daughter, "Just because something is true doesn't mean we say it."

Taisuke cracked open an orange soda pop, guzzling it down and then checking his watch, "Not my best time." He admitted, throwing the empty metal can over his shoulder.

"That was the last one left." Sugu growled, balling her fists under the table and trying not to knock him out.

Kazuto walked down the wooden flight of stairs throwing his red tie around his neck, "Hey, you're not driving the same car from last month right?"

"I am." Taisuke tossed him a fruit bar that Suguha was reaching for, "Eat that in the car let's go!"

Midori pressed her lips to Kazuto's forehead as he waved goodbye to Suguha. Taisuke grabbed him by the elbow and pulled him along, "Let's go!"

...

Kazuto drifted off while staring at Taisuke's side view mirror, before standing up straighter and blinking, "Think my hearing's back." He said suddenly, the fruit bar wrapper laying in his black pocket.

"Great great." The driver murmured, braking before the stoplight, "What's your issue with my car by the way?"

"Nothing, but I'm just wondering. If your family's so rich, then why can't you get a nicer ride?"

He sighed, accelerating and turning left to head towards the school, "Cause I'm seventeen. Can't have anything beyond a special vehicle licence till November, and this is the only car I'm qualified to drive. Freaking sucks man."

Kazuto did a dumb buck toothed impression of him, "Uh-hur...Look at me, I'm Taisuke and I complain about having money. Hyuck-Hyuck!"

"Hey, I wasn't complaining. Speaking of which, when my birthday comes up I might get you something special."

"Me? Get me something?" Kazuto asked, his eyes being attracted to a bill board poster showing off his favorite brand of sour candy.

"Yeah. I'll get you a car so we can both drive. Oh wait..." Taisuke turned his head slowly to the boy to his left, before returning to the road, "You're too young..."

"Wow." Kazuto scoffed, "Real smooth." He began to give him a sarcastic slow clap, "Bravo. Ten out of ten, would recommend."

"Ah. Yojimi Gakuen, long time no see old friend." Taisuke murmured, parking right next to the school sign. Kazuto began to walk away carrying his school bag, but Taisuke rubbed his hands together, "Heh heh heh. Hold up."

Kazuto watched him re arrange the words on the school's sign so it read: Your mom still goes here.

Cars kept zooming by, Taisuke hoping that someone would see it and pester the school about changing it. The other boy shook his head seeing Taisuke just giggle and walk away, "You are a child. A child." Kazuto emphasized.

"Tell me something I don't know." The two of them walked together as Taisuke breathed in through his nose sharply, "Smell that? It's our new semester waiting to be sown and reaped."

"Full of comrades?"

"Full of them. Wait you were listening? I half expected you to be deaf during that."

"Yeah I heard. The whole city probably heard. People in Europe probably heard." Kazuto mumbled, rounding a corner of a hallway while they walked together.

Taisuke turned to him while walking to his right, "Hey, if my ideals are that powerful..."

"Your ideals are revolving around one person. Who is erm...you."

"Me? Well I guess I'm a powerful person." Taisuke acclaimed brightly, his perfect posture straightening further with a glow, resting a hand atop his chest.

"Why the hell are we friends?" Kazuto sighed, gripping his school bag tighter.

"Because no one likes you."

"No one likes you either Yama."

Taisuke smiled warmly, "I know."

As they rounded a corner, Taisuke clenched his jaw after bumping into someone half a head shorter than him, "Hey, watch where you're going Yuuki! Damn!..." He walked off shaking his head, ignoring the papers he knocked out of a girls hands.

She knelt in front of Kazuto to pick them up neatly, "So uncivilized..." The diligent beauty mumbled beneath her breath, before standing up and looking at him, "Hello Kirigaya."

"Y-Yuuki." He said through incredible shyness, trying not to break down in front of her.

Asuna smiled, "Ishoyama's a real handful. Ever think about finding some new friends?"

"E-every day." Kazuto stuttered, shaking slightly in fear.

She handed him a pencil, "Here. Think you might've dropped this."

His palm lay open robotically as if his brain was fried, so it just slid off when she placed it there.

Asuna walked off towards their homeroom in Taisuke's direction, and Kazuto just stared after her, his jaw unhinged like an open mail box. He started stuttering after she left, "D-do you want to maybe..." Kazuto blinked, his brain moving at a turtle's pace while looking after her.

Students eyed him and muttered to each other while walking. Taisuke walked back after him and chuckled to himself, "Ah. I see love hath struck you like a mighty bitch. Kirigaya..." He snapped around his face, trying to break him out of his trance while seeing Asuna's orange-ish brown ponytail sway, "Kirigaya..."

His friend waved a hand in front of him, but he kept staring at the girl walking away. Taisuke placed a hand on his chest again, "Well I guess I must take advantage of thine's situation fare not?"

Taisuke turned Kazuto's body so he was facing directly into a metal row of lockers, still dazing away in his trance. "Wrecked." Tai muttered darkly in triumph. The other teen walked off leaving him there, embarrassing him in the hallway.

After a brief moment or so, Kazuto blinked repeatedly, before shaking his head and running to his home room with a growl, "Ishoyamaaa!"

...

In the classroom, a beautiful black haired young woman gave her lecture on Physiology while Taisuke had an idea. He slipped a note to Kazuto, passing it during class to him. Kazuto unfolded the note slowly before poring into it.

 _Who do you think has a bigger chest, Hayano-sensei, or your sister?_

Kazuto turned slowly to the student who sat behind him, passing it back with one word written on it.

 _Stop._

WHAP!

In the blink of an eye, the teacher had appeared and smacked her ruler onto the desk, pressing it to the note.

"Hayano-sensei...please. Please don't read that." Taisuke begged burying his face in his hands.

She cleared her throat before speaking in her silky smooth voice, "Mr. Ishoyama here wishes for his friend Mr. Kirigaya to lend him the information on the particular size of breasts. While a good teacher would use this to preach her moral views, I must say this." The woman paused as her heels stopped clicking, holding the note up in front of the class, "Mr. Ishoyama. Don't you think you're a little bit too young for that? What with how young you act and all..."

As she turned around to write on her chalkboard, the class laughed in unison while Kazuto turned back around in his chair, "Ishoyama. Hayano-sensei just wrecked. You."

"You were listening to that?" Taisuke asked with a tomato red face.

"My brain works in mysterious ways." He shrugged, turning back around to the lesson, gasping upon seeing the teacher smiling for a moment as everyone laughed.

...

As airy white clouds crossed September skies, Taisuke walked to the cafeteria by himself spotting Kazuto sitting alone in the back of it.

He then grabbed his sandwich and dunked it in a trash can like a basketball. Kazuto jumped out of his seat, "Ishoyama! That's my sandwich!"

"Aw, what a shame." He murmured, "Oh well, guess I have to make it up to you somehow." Taisuke licked his upper lip, "Maybe I should buy you lunch and give that sandwich an upgrade."

Kazuto shook his head while following him to the cafeteria's canteen, "You suck Yama. You suck."

"So." His friend started, "What do you want me to get you?"

"Hm... Guess I'll just get a regular meal."

As they waited in line to get Kazuto's food, Taisuke spoke to him, "Fall dance is coming up pretty soon. Thinking about asking someone- oh wait...I already know who it is."

"W-who?"

"Who else? The same girl you've had a crush on since first grade obviously."

Kazuto scratched his cheek shyly, "It wasn't first grade, come on Ishoyama."

"Oh really?" Taisuke danced his fingers in the air, "Let's travel ten years back in time shall we? You were six and I was seven..."

 _~Taisuke makes flashback noises~_

Two small boys were sitting next to each other on a park bench, watching a group of girls chase each other around while giggling.

"Ishoyama. Who's that?"

Taisuke bit into his salami sandwich with primary teeth, speaking with a much higher voice than he did now, "That would be Miss Yuuki, Kirigaya."

~Fourth Grade~

The boys were playing soccer on a synthetic field, and Kazuto tried to block a coming goal as Asuna sprinted at him. His jaw just dropped and the girls cheered as they won. Taisuke walked up to Kazuto eating a salami sandwich and the black haired keeper asked him a question, "Ishoyama. Who's that?"

"That would be Miss Yuuki." Tai murmured, chewing the salami in his mouth, seeing the girl he was staring at.

~Eighth Grade~

Shinozaki Rika chuckled, standing on a park bench and yelling loudly, "Come one come all! Who can beat me in an cartwheel contest?"

Asuna shrugged, taking her on, "Why not? I'm sure I could."

Seeing a large crowd of fellow preteens cheer the two girls on, Kazuto watched Asuna from afar, "Dude. Who's that?"

Taisuke picked some salami out of the braces he used to wear, "That would be Miss Yuuki. Wow, she's been in our class for ever and you don't even know who she is. Short term memory loss much?"

 _~Taisuke coughs loudly bringing Kazuto back to his senses~_

"You okay?"

"Yeah I'm fine."

"I'm glad I skipped a grade back in kindergarten. Who even knows how I'd be if I wasn't even in her class."

"Oh god!" Taisuke cried, keeling over and earning frightened looks from the black uniformed students around him, "No! I can't..."

Kazuto just shook his head at the students in line staring at him keeling over on the ground, "Don't worry. He does this all the time."

"Your edge...it's too much...I think its sharp enough to cut me." He grunted, keeling over before standing up like nothing happened, speaking to a lady at the register, "Hi, I'd like a regular meal and a-"

"Salami sandwich." Kazuto cut him off, "Order something new. Please."

The lunch lady slapped a salami sandwich and a tray on the metal counter, "That'd be 1798 please."

"Sure." Taisuke murmured drawing his wallet and giving her a generous tip, "Nice hairnet Ichita."

Kazuto shook his head in disbelief while picking up the red tray, "You have to hit on everyone? Everyone?"

"Everyone who's pretty." He corrected with a sharp wink to the lunch lady, walking to one of the cafeteria's long tables after Kazuto got his food.

"You don't hit on...you know...her."

"Yeah, because he hates me."

"Wanna know why?" Kazuto asked sitting in to eat his lunch on the table while Taisuke sat in the opposite direction, his legs sprawled unlike Kazuto's which were under the table.

"I already know why. It's because I did her a huge favor back in our second year. Give me a break."

"A favor?" Kazuto asked, taking pieces of bread into his hands and letting them soak in soup, "You infected her lunch with moss! She was out with the stomach flu for over a week!"

"That's a favor in my opinion. She missed a week of school and-" Taisuke grunted slightly, throwing his legs over the bench and sighing sitting exactly like him now, "Never thanked me for it."

"Why in the hell would she thank you?" One of his hands shoved soup soaked bread into his mouth, chewing on it quietly.

"Because I'm a gracious guy." The boy full of himself smirked, before throwing his nose upwards and smiling at some passing girls. Used to this, they just kept walking and ignored him.

"Who're you gonna ask?" Kazuto wondered, moving on and looking over his lunch at Asuna sitting with her friends.

"Maybe Ms. Hayano. She's only a couple years older than me, like four or so. I'm sure she'll want to go with me."

Kazuto chuckled against the food in his mouth, "Yeah...sure."

"Well I bet you I can go with her if you can go with you know who." Taisuke joked, refusing to use his hated rivals given name.

"I know I can."

Taisuke laughed so loudly that a couple of students whipped their heads to him, "Oh my. Oh that is just too good." Taisuke wiped a tear off his face, "Almost a decade of failure and you think you'll get her."

"I haven't even tried yet Yama."

"Exactly! You can't even speak to her without-." The left side of Taisuke's body started to 'twitch', "St-st-st-stuttering!"

"This year will be different." Kazuto declared indeterminately, gripping his spoon, "I know it."

Taisuke stopped laughing, "Oh, this is why I love hanging out with you so much." He switched sides of the table, sitting across from him, "There is no way in hell. That she." The boxer pointed to Asuna, "Is going out with you."

"And why not?"

The lean boxer blocked Kazuto's view of Asuna with his face, "Hey. Not happening. You know who is practically the Queen of Yojimi. She's the richest, smartest and best looking person in the entire school. Aside from me of course." He added arrogantly, "You might as well go back to those dating sims we used back in the day."

"No."

"I don't know what to tell you. But you know who does have a chance? Me."

Kazuto choked on the piece of bread in his mouth, "Wh-what?"

"Yeah. Look at me! Got me the right social class, grades and sport. You? Bro you'd be lucky to land Shinozaki."

"But you hate each other!"

"Precisely, I still have a greater chance than you. You know how Huey Lewis sung about the power of love in the greatest movie of all time?"

"Yeah."

Taisuke leaned forward across the table, "Yeah well he lied. Power of love doesn't mean a thing."

"Well what do you know about love?" Kazuto asked, chowing down on a cheap bag of potato chips, trying to look around Tai's head to see Asuna.

His friend smirked, turning around and leaning back, sprawling his legs out lazily before unwrapping his salami sandwich, "First. I know that I'm in love with Hayano-sensei."

"You're just attracted to her Ishoyama." The black haired student muttered, rolling his eyes of the same color.

"I want to make babies with her."

"Exactly. Physical attraction. How would you do it then?"

"Well, I'm glad you asked." Taisuke smirked up at the ceiling and closed his eyes, chewing his beloved sandwich of salami, "She would sit on her desk. Then I would get out all my best assignments with my perfect scores on them an' sprawl 'em out next to her. Then I would-"

"Stop. Listening to your perversions sickens me Yama." Kazuto snapped, "I meant how would you get her to love you?"

"Oh..." Taisuke shrugged, still letting Kazuto stare at Asuna by not blocking his view, "I have no idea. But still, why would this semester be different when every other semester has been the same?"

"Fate's keeping us apart, I just know it."

Taisuke placed his sandwich on the table before keeling over on the ground groaning and wincing, "Your pretentiousness...it's too much...room getting darker...too dumb...too edgy..."

His friend ignored him and rolled his eyes, seeing Taisuke rise up from the ground a second later as if nothing had happened.

Kazuto finished his potato chips as he kept staring at that unreachable goal, getting his crush recognized. Taisuke laughed again, "Bet you don't have the guts to ask her. And then I bet that if you do have the guts to ask her, she'd still say no."

He stood up with a look of total determination on his face, "You're going to choke on your words Yama-Tai, watch me."

"Watch you do what?...Oh no."

Emblazoned with fear, Kazuto made the short yet seemingly infinite walk to Asuna's table with all her friends. His legs started to become weak, like if they were filled with sand, his shyness keeping him locked in a sap like trance as if he was some sort of slowly melting popsicle.

"He's not even going to make it to her table." Taisuke giggled, laughing while filming his sheepishly slow walk on his phone, smugly eating salami the whole time.

The shy boy started to shake in fear, not even halfway between his own table in the cafeteria and Asuna's.

Kazuto turned around quickly with a pale face and a raised finger, "Can't do it."

He began to hyperventilate on the cafeteria bench, his chest heaving up and down while being comforted by Taisuke. His older friend took the chance to massage Kazuto's shoulders and speak softly, "It's okay...everything's gonna be fine."

"How can it be? I can't even get to her table!" Kazuto kept panting, sweat running down his pale face.

"Deep breaths." Taisuke assured, using his strong hands to massage Kazuto's shoulders, "Deeeeep breaths man come on. Breath in."

A sharp breath entered Kazuto's mouth.

"Breath out."

The breath left it.

"Listen." Taisuke looked Kazuto right in the eyes, energetic orange locked with fearful black, "You. Have got this. You are the man Kirigaya! The man!"

"B-But I thought you hated her..." He stuttered out.

"Forget about me." Taisuke turned him around and rolled Kazuto's shoulders in his hands, almost as if he was preparing him for one of his own favorite boxing matches, "Its about you man! You! Not me! And you, have got this."

"I-I-I..." Kazuto shook his head, "I do?"

"Yes. Look at me. Look at me!" Taisuke kept making eye contact with him, "You can do this. Yes you can! You're Kirigaya freaking Kazuto! You can do anything!"

"I can?"

"Yes! Now get up and use that huge heart of yours! Use it!"

Kazuto shot up off the cafeteria bench with a bright smile, "I can! Yes I can!"

"Yes!" Taisuke clapped his hands together and hooted, "Get 'em boy! Get 'em!"

Kazuto breathed in deeply, rubbing his hands in front of his face while walking towards Asuna's table, his anxious words floating in his mind like a storm.

 _Do I smell all right? What if she says no? What if she's already going with someone else? What if Ishoyama's pulling my leg on this one, he always does! I am just too scared. I'm not good enough to go with her. I-_

Before Kazuto knew it, he was at Asuna's table, the large group of girls looking at him with puzzled looks on their faces.

"H-Hello." He breathed out.

"Hello." Asuna smiled turning around and sitting up in her perfect posture.

"I-I am...Kiri...hm..." Kazuto stopped, his hands twitching nervously in fear behind his back.

"I know who you are. We've been in the same class for years."

"You look like you're about to piss your pants. Need a diaper lover boy?"

"Stop it Rika." Asuna warned over her shoulder before returning to the shy black haired boy in front of her, "Do you have something you'd like to say?" She asked, knowing the dance was on the minds of many people.

"Y-Yes...I..." Kazuto gulped, "Would you...would you...I-I..."

Taisuke was watching the whole time and he put his phone away, "Don't worry, I got you man." He appeared at Kazuto's side, wrapping an arm over the incredibly nervous boy's shaking shoulders, "Ladies." Taisuke smirked, earning about five different eye rolls.

"Kazuto was about to tell me something Ishoyama." Asuna said annoyedly, glaring at her rival darkly.

"We'll get there. Do you ladies know that Kirigaya here has never had a cavity since third grade? Hubba-hubba." He growled, flicking his blackish brown eyebrows upwards.

"I'm afraid you're interrupting what your friend had to say."

"I'm afraid not. As I'll just say it for him because he's too damned nervous. Yuuki Asuna. Would you do me the huge favor of going to-"

An electrical bell rang, and Asuna rolled her eyes when she rose off the table's bench, "Waste my time some other time Ishoyama. Goodbye Kazuto, see you in class." She added in her warm voice, smiling lightly and waving to the boy whose head followed her movements.

After the group of girls left their table in a hurry, along with the rest of the cafeteria, Kazuto wiped the sweat off his face and turned to him, "Ishoyama you life ruiner! Now she'll never go to the dance with me!"

"Yes she will! We have two weeks until its here." Taisuke checked his watch, "Oh crap, we're going to be so late!"

The boys ran back to their homeroom, Taisuke pulling up some flowers from the ground on the way over there.

...

"Hayano-sensei!" One of her best students said, getting down on one knee and extending flowers off his broad chest, dirt falling off its roots and in front of her desk, "Please go to the dance with me! Please."

"Oh Ishoyama." The teacher smiled at him as if he was a little boy, ruffling his blackish brown hair, "I'd love to go the dance with you."

"Really?" Taisuke sparked up, smiling from ear to ear.

"Of course. Only I can't or else the school will fire me."

Taisuke rose from the ground with an arm over his eyes, "Why is the world so cruel to me?"

As he returned to his desk, the boy sitting in front of him teased him, getting revenge after years of cynical punishment, "Oooof. The pain man, I feel it."

"Sh-shut up Kirigaya." Taisuke whinged, protecting his face from embarassment.

Kazuto threw his arm down with a vengeful smirk, "Knew you weren't crying, I know you all too well..."

Class rolled along like it did every day for the past two years, with Taisuke staring off dreamily at his teachers chest, and Kazuto doing the same into the back of Asuna's head. Asuna looked to the window at her right side, seeing the reflection of the entire class with her analytical amber eyes.

When she saw a single black haired head stare off in her direction before glowing red in embarrassment and looking down at his lap, the girl could do only one thing.

Smile.

...

As they all left class, Kazuto tried to work up the courage again to ask her, only for Taisuke to appear in front of him, "Hey. You want to help me out with a lab assignment and then hit the basketball courts?"

"Yeah sure." His friend muttered with a deep sigh, seeing Asuna walk out of the classroom.

"Great let's go."

The boys stood in the chemistry lab wearing goggles and lab coats, mixing ingredients into a foaming glass beaker, "Okay..." Taisuke poured some clear liquid into it, "That should be it..." His orange eyes widened before seeing the concoction glow the same color, "Uh...how much Ammonium Nitrate did we use?"

"Thirteen milliliters."

"No, Hayano-sensei said eight. You copied the notes incorrectly you idiot."

Seeing the beaker spark and foam, Kazuto felt his heart race, "We're going to blow up the science lab! Oh god what're we going to do!?"

Taisuke's gaze flew to the labs clock, "No we're not, no one's at school at this hour. Help me get this thing outside, quick!"

The boys carried it to the hallway gently, closing the door to the chemistry room quickly before standing away from it with their backs turned to it. They raised their hands over their ears and braced themselves for an explosion.

Asuna rounded the hallway corner with Rika, "So you know, I always knew that it should be like that- but then-"

PAPOW!

Kazuto and Taisuke turned around slowly to see the girls standing head to toe in orange goop, what remained of the beaker was a smoking husk and a few broken pieces of glass.

Asuna blinked, her eyelids starting to bat together to collect herself again. She gave Taisuke a death glare, a look so frightening that the tall boxer forgot he was afraid of a girl with half his strength, "Ishoyama! You ruined my school uniform!"

"I-I but I...I..."

She wiped some of the goop off her face and looked at it, "It's supposed to be clear and smell of Silver Nitrate. Amazing note work imbecile, good luck on tomorrow's chemistry practical. Let's go Rika."

Taisuke yelled after her, "Oh yeah? Well I'm beating you in that class so how 'bout that?"

Asuna trashed his argument in seconds, speaking while walking away, "By about half a percent. That's the only subject too."

He grunted, throwing off his goggles and balling his fists, "That...she-devil...that...witch...I won't stop studying until I beat her in every class."

"But your grades are already perfect! Why would you push yourself harder?"

"To beat her. Kirigaya!" His hands snapped to Kazuto's shoulders, sizing the boy up, "Promise me you won't actually go to the dance with her. Forget your crush, stay with me man!"

"Uh..." Kazuto looked down at his shoes, staying silent and not knowing how to respond.

Taisuke became impatient and just shook his head, "I'm skipping boxing practice today and going straight home."

"But who's gonna give me a ride?..." Kazuto mumbled.

"I don't know, not my problem." Taisuke shrugged, getting his things and leaving the lab coat in the chemistry room, "See you tomorrow!"

"Ishoyama! Come on please!"

He had left quickly, his silver Miata sparkling in the sunlight when it flew out of the school parking lot.

Kazuto sighed and picked up his school bag, "Well I guess I'll just walk to the courts by myself then..."

...

He sat on the metal bleachers by himself, leaning on the green chain link fence behind him while he ran over his notes, the boy trying to find his mistakes. The tip of his pencil ran over formulas and bullet points, but no matter how hard he tried he simply could not remember what he did wrong.

"Need some help?" A kind voice asked, as it mixed with the sounds of a bouncing orange basketball and squeaking sneakers.

Kazuto grew shy and nervous instantly, "Uh...I-I uh..."

Asuna offered a hand and Kazuto placed the notebook in her palm with shaking arms.

She pressed her thumb to a red pen and corrected his notes in less than a minute, "There. Should be fine now."

His black eyes flew over his notes before they widened.

 _She didn't just fix them...she elaborated on them. No wonder she can beat Ishoyama!_

Asuna sat down next to him and shrugged, "Chemistry can get pretty boring sometimes. I don't blame you if you mess up on the lectures."

"T-tell me about it."

He noticed how there were still small patches of orange gunk lying around her school uniform. Asuna had tried to do her best to remove all of it, but some of it actually had stuck onto her like tangerine colored chewing gum.

Kazuto looked over his left shoulder to see the ground, and his right where the girl he had admired for years sat. There was no tall boxer to call his sarcastic wingman, no courage to summon. He had no choice but to look at her and run over his notebook sitting on his knees shyly.

"So I saw you try and talk to me for the first time today. That was pretty cute if you ask me."

"Y-you think so?" He asked hopefully.

Asuna nodded, sitting in her usual perfect posture, "Yeah, I get why however."

"Wh-what do you mean?"

"Ishoyama is a very negative person, it's why I share such distaste for him. He must've drilled it into your head for years that you're no good just to stay with him. Or that you believe that since your only friend for years is a selfish rich boy, you have no idea how to interact with people. That's my take on it at least."

Kazuto's jaw dropped a little, staring at her in awe.

 _How in the hell is she so smart!? Is this some sort of angel who descended from above?_

She smiled a little, "You know...my friends told me rumors about how you could never work up the nerve to talk to me for years..."

"Oh god!" He buried his face into his hands, "Oh god I'm so sorry..."

Asuna laughed in a watery giggle, making Kazuto's head shoot up and look at her, "Oh it's fine...I can't really blame you considering your position. Teased and bragged to since our first year, I think I would do the same. How about this? I'll take the pain off your hands of having to ask me and do this."

For the first time, amber met onyx.

His sheepishly calm gaze turned frightful as she said the following words while looking into his eyes, "Kirigaya Kazuto. Will you go the Fall Dance with me?"

Before he could react, so many emotions overcame him that it was like his brain was squashed by multiple bullet trains in an instant. Surprise, anxiety, joy and utter shyness just smacked together like a tidal wave in his head, before he crumpled under the weight of it all, passing out and slumping off the metal bleachers.

"Kazuto!"

Sweaty basketball jocks and Asuna stood over him, trying to revive him. They poked his face and his chest, attempting their best to get him back awake.

The boy with obsidian eyes had them open sluggishly, before seeing a gorgeous face hang over him.

"Are you all right?" She asked, her voice brimming with worry.

"I...I..." He paused, gulping, the words building up like a supernova in his rapidly beating heart, before bursting in a beautiful display of star dust, "Yes. Yes, I will go to the dance with you."

...


	2. Chapter 2

**Dirty Drifting and Fast Dancing**

 **...**

Asuna offered Kazuto a hand and she helped him up from the ground. As he swiped dust off his knees, she looked at him, "Hey so tomorrow's a Saturday, do you maybe want to get to know each other a little better first?"

"Uh s-sure, what exactly's on your mind then?"

"Hm...can I see your phone?"

She typed her number onto it quickly, "There. We'll text on the details but I'm sure everything'll be fine."

"Y-yeah it will."

Asuna smirked, picking up her school bag and waving away to him walking out of the basketball courts, "See you tomorrow Kazuto!"

"S-see you...tomorrow..." He murmured slowly, looking at her sleek orange brown ponytail. Kazuto looked at her phone number and sat back down on the metal bench. Staring at it and thinking, the boy could only smile.

 _What in the hell just happened? Is this some sort of dream? Is this what ten years of dedication feels like?_

When he was back home, Kazuto texted away happily with her, and fifteen minutes later he had to share some information with his friend Taisuke.

 _(Hey man, think you could give me a ride tomorrow at 11:30? Drive me to midtown near the airport please.)_

Taisuke was inside a small gymnasium in his father's enormous mansion. He paused from running on a treadmill, a hand still flipping a page in his textbook before it stopped, seeing his phone light up. He took a second to respond.

 _(Yeah sure thing. Why though?)_

Kazuto breathed in tightly, thinking about what to say before texting back.

 _(I'm kind of going on a date)_

The boy who saw this got off his treadmill, wiping sweat off with a towel before his eyes bulged in shock.

 _(How? How is this possible? With who?)_

A sigh left Kazuto's mouth when reading this, "Ishoyama you never cease to use amazement in my ability..."

 _(Someone)_

He knew who it was the second his friend refused to reveal her identity. Taisuke put on green boxing gloves and smacked away at his punching bag, loud slapping noises filling the small gymnasium before he returned to his phone.

 _(Is it the she devil?)_

Black eyes were rolled.

 _(Yes Ishoyama, it is the girl I've liked for years)_

"Goddamniiiiit!" The second the wealthy teen read this text message from Kazuto, he began to pound his punching bag so hard the whole gymnasium seemed to collapse under his strength, green blurs that were his fists making the black punching bag jump in the air again and again as its owner abused it. Taisuke didn't even text back, growling so loudly in anger a butler appeared.

"Are you all right Master Ishoyama?"

"I'm fine Youzo go away." He growled viciously, going back to yelling loudly in fury before unleashing a green storm of rage onto his punching bag. Taisuke was absolutely enraged, his jabs and hooks so powerful that they made the air crack with slaps, the chain holding up the punching bag clinking as the punching bag flew upwards after receiving every blow.

As Taisuke punished the same bag he had hit for years, his growling turned to angry words in his head.

 _Yuuki Asuna...you've beaten me at school for years...you've been my most bitter rival since we've met...and now you've stolen my only friend...You witch. Witch!_

 _(I'll pick you up at 10:20. Don't be asleep.)_

 _(Thanks Taisuke)_

 _(Don't use my given name.)_

Kazuto raised an eyebrow at that last text message. Whenever it was used, which was quite rare, he never seemed to mind. But now there was something new in that reaction, something strange. Whatever it was, he never got to know, because moments later Asuna sent him a text message.

 _(Hey, excited for our date?)_

A text was sent back instantly.

 _(Totally. Why wouldn't I be?)_

He gasped sharply, groaning and grasping the black locks on his head in shock, "No! No no no no no, unsend unsend! God I am such an idiot, that was terrible and needy!"

Asuna giggled over in her house, dancing her feet in the air as she laid on her stomach, sending a text back while laying on her bed.

 _(I have no idea. There's no reason to get nervous for our date Kazu.)_

He gave a sigh of relief, wiping sweat off his forehead and smiling, "What a save she liked it."

They spent the whole night texting, until a grumbling message awoke him from his happy daze.

 _(Make it 10:10. Do. Not. Be. Asleep.)_

 _(All right all right jeez. I'll be awake damn)_

...

"Well this is a strange change of pace." Taisuke chortled sarcastically, putting his hands on his hips and sighing. As Taisuke'd expected, Kazuto had spent the whole night texting Asuna and he passed out still wearing his school uniform, his rear raised in the air as he snored, drooling slightly onto his pillow.

"Get up please!" Taisuke begged while yelling, "For the love of god man can you wake up without me having to wake up everyone for miles?"

Kazuto kept snoring onto his pillow lightly.

Taisuke grunted in frustration, throwing a punch so strong that Kazuto flew from it and smacked against the wall of his bedroom, a black mark now imprinted onto his arm. Despite this, Kazuto was so heavy a sleeper that it was if a fly had hit him. Taisuke turned crafty, giggling quietly as he slowly drew an air horn.

His hand moved at a snails pace, the air horn approaching his ear...before rubbing the plastic of the air horn's cone against his ear lobe, Taisuke had decided to try and wake him up using it rather strangely. He started poking the side of his face using the air horn's metal canister, trying not to burst into laughter.

Suddenly the air horn blew loudly in his ear, his eyes flying open.

He sprang awake, "Wh-what?"

"You lied to me ya fool. Get dressed, I'd iron that school uniform on Monday if I were you." His older friend murmured with a warning, "Get ready for your date man, I'm gonna go hit on your sister downstairs."

"What the what?" Kazuto asked, his hearing impervious to air horn blasts after Taisuke's Mighty Soviet Orchestrate of the morning before. He was severely confused, he was going on a date? Suguha was probably going to smack Taisuke for trying to get with her?

It all made sense after he'd showered and dressed properly for his date with Asuna, he walked downstairs wearing a blue button up shirt with jeans. Taisuke was laying sprawled out on the hardwood floor, a red slap mark shining on his face.

Kazuto sighed, "How long did it take you to joke about her breasts?"

"Only...two...minutes..." Taisuke groaned from the ground, turning over to reveal the bruises she'd given him on his stomach by lifting his green jacket, "She is really hostile. Like I only joked about it twice."

"Yeah, because you're an idiot." He rolled his eyes, walking past him on the ground to get some breakfast.

Kazuto returned to their living room holding a piece of toast, meanwhile Taisuke kept groaning on the ground, reaching for Suguha with a giggle as she walked past, "Hey...wanna hear a joke about-erghm!" A groan of pain ended it instantly.

She cut him off by kicking him in the stomach, "Pig. Kazu, why the hell does he keep coming here?"

"He's giving me rides that's why. He's actually pretty nice if you get to know him."

"That's the thing. I can't get to know him because I can't spend five seconds talking to him without hearing how he 'never got D's like mine in school'."

Taisuke giggled like a child on the ground, "Get it? Because my grades are perfect. It's also a play on word because I never get la-."

Kazuto chewed on his toast calmly, watching Sugu toss the boy vastly taller than her across the living room by his ear lobe, "Pig! If he comes here again I'll kill you Kazuto."

She left in a huff as he groaned from smacking against the wall, "Why...do girls always...hate me?"

"Because you're an arrogant self absorbed bastard?"

Taisuke nodded while recovering from hitting the wall, "Yeah...that might be it."

Kazuto let his mind slip away like it always did when watching television, before Taisuke eyed the clock on their microwave, "Uh...when did you say your date was?"

He gasped, "No!..."

It was 11:20, the date was going to start in ten minutes.

Kazuto gasped again, becoming frightened while holding his head in fear, "Oh god! I'm gonna be late and then she'll never go out with me again! How the hell are we going to get to midtown in ten minutes?"

Taisuke scratched his chin, "By pulling some Initial D Eurobeat magic that's how. Watch this."

"Wa-waagh!" Kazuto yelped in surprise as Taisuke used his muscles to carry him to his Miata, the silver roadster gleaming in the Kirigaya's driveway.

The look on Kazuto's face when this happened was one of total fear, being dumped into his seat like a sack of potatoes:

Taisuke drew sunglasses from his glove compartment, "Heh. Kirigaya?"

"Yes?..." He asked slowly, seeing the serious look on his face.

"Never forget this, the rule of cool begins and ends with one name: Ishoyama." The boy frowned coldly, putting the sunglasses on, "Don't crap yourself Kazu."

"D-don't crap myself?...Whoa! Whoa!"

Before Kazuto could react, Taisuke shifted into reverse gear and pulled out of the driveway in a flash, before doing a one eighty and flying off towards the city shifting again quickly.

"Where's second street?" He mumbled, staring out calmly from behind his sunglasses.

"Th-that way. You're in the wrong lane!" Kazuto ordered by pointing, sitting on Taisuke's left.

He peeled across four lanes of traffic without even marking his turn, pressing the accelerator so much the silver Miata blurred.

"Taisuke...Taisuke...Taisukeee!" Kazuto screamed seeing the coming street corner, "Don't do it!"

"Don't use my given name."

The boxer braked suddenly, causing the front wheels to slip as steam flew from the brakes, before dragging the back wheels of the car around the street corner in a right drift.

"Taisuke I can't get to my date if I'm dead!"

"You won't be dead, you'll be on time. And don't use my given name!" He ordered, raising a finger as he weaved between cars quickly, "All right, mid towns in a couple stop lights we'll get there quickly at this rate. I'm only going at...170 kilometers an hour."

The boys gasped, "Sixth is on construction?" They shouted together.

Taisuke grunted, "Ergh! We have to take fifth. Hold on fool." He pulled the emergency brake, doing a one eighty before the construction block, the back of the Miata almost touching it and turning around, "Goddamit, I didn't want to have to do this but we're going to have to use alleyways."

"What?!" Kazuto shouted and blinked in shock.

"You'll be fine." He assured, approaching the coming intersection.

"Taisuke that's a red light! Taisuke! Taisukeee!" Kazuto yelled, feeling his heart pound out of his chest.

"Given name, do not use it please." He said with another raised finger, trying to use different grammar to appeal to him.

As they approached an intersection, Taisuke rolled the window down and stuck his head out, showing a peace sign and laughing with his tongue out, the traffic camera snapping a picture of Kazuto's face buried in his hands in fear while his friend drove like a maniac. As the car drifted, Taisuke felt the steering wheel spin quickly in his palm, the back of the silver car swinging around the corner.

The Miata's tires screeched as it flew around the street corner, before roaring towards midtown, "Good we're back on track."

"B-Back on track? I saw my life flash in front of my eyes!" Kazuto shrieked in fear, as the Miata dove between slower traffic towards his date.

While the Miata flew around street corners before accelerating down lanes, Kazuto couldn't stop panting, his chest flying up and down.

 _I'm going to die! I'm going to die! I'll never see Asuna again and it's all Ishoyama's fault!_

"I want that hot dog." The boy noted calmly by looking into his rearview mirror, before doing another one eighty and diving headfirst into oncoming traffic.

Kazuto screamed in fear, as Taisuke avoided crashing with car after car to get a snack. This whole time, Taisuke was completely calm, Kazuto screaming his head off. A man was holding a hot dog on the sidewalk, before a hand from traffic snatched from him, a screeching set of tires wheeling to allow for another one eighty.

As Taisuke chewed on it, he drove with all haste towards midtown, having almost killed both of them, "Want some?" He offered, showing him the half eaten hot dog.

Kazuto shook his head slowly.

"Your loss." He shrugged, before diving out of traffic with a drift, making Kazuto almost black out from the G-forces shoving him inside his seat.

"I-If you hate Asuna so much then why are you doing this?"

"This is not for her." Taisuke blinked behind his sunglasses, flying down the alleyway after finishing his hot dog, "It's for you man."

Taisuke accelerated down the wide alleyway, seeing a truck pull out into it slowly. He smirked, doing a screeching drift around it, knocking out Kazuto in shock as the car came a millimeter from impact. The boy just drooled onto his seat with a smile, as Taisuke checked the clock on his dashboard, "Two minutes, we're almost there buddy."

He drifted around another truck quickly before going into a reverse gear and drifting backwards around the end of it, pulling out of the alleyway backwards before flipping the car around, smirking, "That's the airport." Taisuke upshifted, "You're not late man."

The Miata roared down the street towards the ice cream shop, before screeching and drifting around a parked car, marking the street with a black tire imprint. Asuna was wearing a plain yellow dress and earrings, a purse instead of a school bag slung over her shoulder.

The Ishoyama emerged from the right side of his car, before moving to the left side and carrying Kazuto from it, slamming the door shut with his foot. Asuna had a thousand Yen note in her hand, and was about to buy a can from a vending machine, pausing as she saw Taisuke carrying Kazuto towards her.

Asuna gasped quietly in surprise as a passed out Kazuto was dumped into her arms, "Here's your date." He swiped the money from Asuna's hand, "There's my tip."

"T-tip?" She asked, still holding Kazuto, "Is he all right?"

"Yeah I just blazed across the whole city to get here. Enjoy your date, he's fine by the way." He muttered coldly, walking to his car.

"Are you actually jealous of me Ishoyama?" Asuna smirked, seeing him open the silver door to his car and getting inside it.

"She-devil." Taisuke insulted under his breath, flying away in his speed demon Miata.

Asuna walked inside the shop, carrying Kazuto into the ice cream store as everyone stared at them, "Don't worry...er...he's fine." She assured, as he was laid gently into a chair. Asuna then ordered two vanilla ice creams, the bowls resting on the table.

Kazuto was still knocked out, his ice cream untouched as Asuna waited respectfully for him to eat his. When he woke up, stirring slowly, he awoke to see the girl of his dreams sitting across the table from him, "A-Asuna?"

"Hello Kazuto how are you today?"

He started stammering, "Wh-what is this? Wh-where am I?" Kazuto asked, whipping his head around the ice cream shop.

His head whipped back to her as he heard a giggle, "Relax, Ishoyama dropped you off and we're on a date."

"A-a date. With you?"

She smiled at him, "Do you have short term memory loss or something?"

"I-I...I really don't know at this point."

Asuna eyed his bowl, "You're not touching your ice cream."

He instantly picked it up and started to shove large amounts of it in his mouth, making her laugh in surprise, "Stop, stop! That wasn't an order, I was just offering some to you."

"O-oh." Kazuto mumbled slowly, putting the ice cream back down while mumbling against a mouthful of it.

"Why do you take everything I say so seriously?" She asked, leaning her perfect posture forward onto her arms.

"B-because. Because I respect you, and I admire you...a lot."

She picked up her bowl neatly with a thin raised eyebrow, "Really? Well that's flattering I guess, most guys I know don't even have the word respect in their vocabulary."

"Guys like Ishoyama?" Kazuto joked.

Asuna giggled again, scooping up some vanilla ice cream with her spoon, "Yes, people exactly like him. Speaking of which I wanted to ask, if you had to choose between him or me, who would it be?"

"You." He said confidently in an instant, without the single trace of a stutter.

She raised an eyebrow, "Seriously? You'd sell out your friend that quickly?"

Kazuto bit his lip.

 _Damn it that was a trap! This is torturous to avoid these types of questions._

"I mean...what did you want me to say?"

"Mm, I don't know." Asuna shrugged, sticking her spoon in her mouth with an innocent smile.

"Please, wh-what was the right answer?"

"Perhaps we shall never know."

Kazuto looked down to his lap in deep thought, his black eyes flying from his knees to his belt again and again, trying to understand how he should've reacted properly.

"Stop." Asuna laughed, "I'm sorry I tortured you."

"Forgive me for asking, but why did you do it then?" Her nervous date asked before tapping the tips of his fingers together.

She mumbled quietly with a small tinge of embarrassment, a small bit of red rising in her cheeks, "Because when you get flustered...it's sort of..." Asuna sighed, "It's sort of adorable."

Kazuto blacked out when this compliment hit, falling out of his chair as the four bullet trains smacked together in his brain again.

When he awoke the date continued normally as if nothing had ever happened, Asuna noting that compliments could possibly result in what Taisuke liked to call Kazu-crashes. They spent the whole time talking about the things they liked, which allowed them to engage rather strongly, as Kazuto was into video games and her father just so happened to be the owner of a video game company.

Asuna also gave loads of advice on studying, which ended up being very helpful to Kazuto as Taisuke was about as useful to him as a cheat sheet with all the answers written on it locked inside an iron chest.

They actually spent so much time talking and laughing together that they moved to the ice cream stores couch, speaking until the sun came down. Tokyo's skyline lit awake like a multicolored birthday cake, and the two teens sighed in disappointment, seeing the clock tick to eight o clock.

Asuna shrugged, "Well I guess it had to end at some point. I had fun though."

"Me too, do you want me to walk you home?"

"That would be fine, but I live an hour away from here walking distance-wise."

He followed her outside, where they stood and watched cars zoom by before Kazuto spoke, "Hey how did you get here Asuna? Did your mother drive you or..."

She laughed again, making him turn red in surprise, "My mother? Please, the day I'd tell her I was out on a date with a boy instead of studying shall never ever come. But I wouldn't worry about it."

"But I-"

"Kazu, I'll be fine, thank you." She waved over a cab and asked, "Hey, do you know if Ishoyama is giving you a ride back to your place?"

"Uh...m-maybe? But I'm not getting into a car with him for the rest of my life."

"Why?"

Kazuto pointed to the long black scorch mark that was where the rubber tires imprinted onto the parking space, showing he'd drifted into a brake stop.

"Oh. I hope he gets arrested for that." Asuna added promptly, praying for the day she didn't have to share a classroom with him, "Kazuto? Do you maybe want to do this again sometime?"

"Definitely. Thanks for the ice cream, that was very kind of you." He said in a hurriedly nervous tone as the cab driver cleared his throat loudly.

She answered back equally as fast, "Thank you for the date, see you at school on Monday!" Asuna leaned forward and pecked him on the cheek, making his cheeks glow bright red and...

Causing a famous Kazu-crash.

"Is he going to be fine?" The cab driver asked the girl getting into his yellow car.

"He's Kirigaya Kazuto, of course he'll be fine." Asuna mumbled, used to this by now as hearts floated off his body, laying out cold on the ground.

When he recovered from his crash, he ran to the window of the ice cream store, seeing the lip stick mark on his cheek where Asuna'd kissed him, and bursting into happy cheers, "I did it! I finally have the girl of my dreams to be with!" The people in the ice cream store eyed him curiously as he ran up and down the street in bombastic cheerful sprints, hooting loudly and bouncing into the air in happiness.

Kazuto threw his fist into the night with a final cheer, "Suck on that Ishoyama! Choke on those words man!"

The boy ended up running home as fast as he could, a bright smile on his face.

Sugu thew her nose up in disgust when he walked by, entering their house, "Ugh. You smell terrible."

"I ran all the way from the airport, why wouldn't I be?" Kazuto laughed, walking up the stairs to his room.

She saw him do this while thinking.

 _What the hell has him so happy?_

When he collapsed onto his bed after texting Asuna the whole night, the world swirled into a blur for him, happy thoughts and multiple dates allowing for a single night of rest to allow days to fly by.

...

The Fall Dance arrived quickly, and Taisuke unsurprisingly couldn't get anyone to go with him. So when it began at Yojimi High's gymnasium, he sulked in a corner sitting at a table by himself, fellow students dancing in pairs or large groups around him. Asuna and Kazuto had decided to meet each other there, and Kazuto was checking himself in a window.

He made sure his black hair looked all right, along with his black suit and tie, before a voice complimented him kindly behind him, "You look fine Kazuto."

Kazuto turned around and gasped trying not to crash, "I-I. You look. You look perfect." He said confidently, standing up straighter and nodding.

And indeed she did, wearing a beautiful pink dress and heels, her hair released from it's usual ponytail, "Thank you, so do you Kazu."

She offered her hand which was promptly taken by him, the two walking inside the dance.

Taisuke, in his white suit and red bow tie, eyed the group of girls that usually followed Asuna by squinting at them, seeing them run up to her and compliment her.

"You look incredible Asuna!" Rika smiled.

"Totally." Keiko and Shino said with nods.

"Thank you, all of you do too." She nodded back, interlocking her fingers with Kazuto's before standing behind him. Their small dance began, as Kazuto leaned back on her, the girl wrapping her hands around his stomach and resting her head on his shoulder. The two of them just swayed there slowly, before Taisuke couldn't take it anymore.

He withdrew a small silver flask from inside the white folds of his tuxedo, taking a quick sip from it. A middle aged teacher appeared, frowning and fixing his glasses, "What is that young man?"

"Whiskey from Idaho. Aged in my fathers cellar for years, want some Norimo-sensei?"

"I...I...I am a recovering alcoholic, my wife will kill me."

"Just one hit come on Sensei." Taisuke offered, smirking up at him and offering it, "You know how much you want that juice..."

The man gritted his teeth, "Fine."

Moments later, the two were chuckling and getting drunk together. Asuna and Kazuto passed them, hearing them sing loudly in drunken tones, "Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens! Bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens! Brown wooden packages tied up with strings, these are a few of my favorite things! When the dog bites, when the bee stings, when I'm feeling sad! I simply remember my favorite things and then I don't feeeeel. Sooo bad!"

The two of them chuckled as Asuna eyed them reproachfully from resting her head on Kazuto's shoulder, hearing their whiskey amplified voices singing in English echo across the gymnasium, "Girls in white dresses with blue satin sashes, snow that falls on my nose and eyelashes! Silver white winters that melt into springs, these are a few of my favorite things! When the dog bites, when the bee stings, when I'm feeling saaaad! I simply remember my favorite things! And then I don't feeeeel soo baaaad!"

They finished with a long note, their perfectly masculine voices ending the song loudly. Asuna stopped resting her head on Kazuto's shoulder to go smack Taisuke across the face and reprimand another classes teacher, but Kazuto held her elbow when the slow music played across the gymnasium, "Asuna. Please."

"But they're-"

He pulled her confidently to his chest, "They don't matter. You want to know who matters?"

She nodded, taking the chance to rest her hands on his shoulders.

As he spun her under his arm, before standing behind her and speaking resting his head on her shoulder, he spoke to her, "You. You matter to me Asuna. These past two weeks have been the most amazing days of my life. How do you feel?"

She turned around and held his elbows, "Kazu- I. I think I feel the same way, I've learned enough about you I could name anything you like."

Kazuto smirked, "Is that so? Name them then."

The slow swaying music kept playing and she took the challenge, speaking to him while their bodies moved in a dance, "Ask me a question then, anything."

"My favorite show?"

"Blast Heroes. You said it was cheesy and ridiculous fun."

He smirked, looking into her amber eyes, "I said it was cheesy and under budgeted."

"You made that up." Asuna gave him a warning look, "You refuse to acknowledge the fact that I know you so we-"

She was interrupted by another American power ballad from a drunken teacher and Taisuke.

Asuna tried to retreat from his arms, but Kazuto managed to grow enough confidence to draw her back, moving her away from them, "See? You can't even hear them now."

"Yes but they're still drunk!" She pleaded.

"Asuna. Don't worry about it. They're drunk, not us. Can I be honest?"

"Of course." She nodded, blinking and still looking into those black caves that were his eyes.

He rested his hands above her hips, "I'm enjoying my time with you right now. I've enjoyed this more than I've enjoyed my time with anyone else." Their bodies kept swaying in their slow dance, "Do you feel the same way?"

"Yes. How could I not?"

Kazuto looked down at his shifting black dress shoes, "I mean...I act pretty shyly. I'm pretty impulsive and not all that smart."

She shook her head, "Those are called flaws. Name one of my flaws come on."

"You're too perfect." He said instantly.

Asuna laughed, "Oh wow! And you're calling Blast Heroes cheesy listen to yourself."

"I'm not lying, I wish I was but I can't point out anything wrong with you."

"I can point out something wrong with you. You're a dummy." She smirked, still swaying in their slow dance.

"Yeah I know." He admitted, looking away from her strikingly intelligent amber eyes.

"Can you...kiss me dummy?" She asked, turning his cheek back to her.

"Uh..." He gulped, feeling the four bullet trains build up in his head, building power as they approached impact. Kazuto felt it all build up in his head like a rumbling train, the nervous wreck approaching, the crash coming before...

Kazuto leaned forward to kiss her confidently, after Asuna helped him break out of his shy restraints for weeks.

Only his lips...missed?

Someone had pulled Asuna away from him when he went for what she asked for, pulling her away in a tight dance of his own. The boy laughed, "Lemme borrow the she-devil for a second, gotta few dance moves of my own to try." He tried to dance with her, grabbing her hand.

"Taisuke are you drunk?"

"N-no!" He exclaimed slurring, "Y-your mom's drunk! Ha...good one Yama good one..."

Kazuto was indeed impulsive grunting and shoving Taisuke to the ground. He immediately regretted his decision, seeing Taisuke rise from the ground and standing over half a head taller than him, balling his amazingly strong fists. The air seemed to crack as his knuckles were bared. As the dance watched in shock, the slow dance music still playing as they stared.

Taisuke smirked, his head turning to a passed out Sensei Norimo in his chair, "The only teacher here is out. Means I can wreck you."

"Yama we're friends why the hell are you doing this?" Kazuto asked.

He spat at him, "We're not friends! You left me man, for her! For this bitch you barely know!"

"She's not like you say she is! I've actually gotten to know her pretty well, and you know what? She's pretty cool! The coolest person I've met! Cooler than you Ishoyama!"

The boxer shook his head, "I've known you for years and the only thanks I get is a pat on the damned shoulder! And you choose the person I hate most, my opinion doesn't mean a damn thing! Screw you!" Taisuke roared, throwing a trained right punch to his face.

Kazuto closed his eyes and lifted a hand in front of his face to brace himself.

Asuna ran to protect him and caught it in her palm, her flowing chestnut hair whipping backwards from the air that was made from its impact. She kept holding the boxer's right fist, gripping it so tightly in her rage that he winced in pain, "Don't you ever touch him. If you hurt him I'll kill you." She murmured through her calm anger, "You have high grades yet you act like you have a mental disability. Imbecile."

"Bitch!" He retorted drunkenly, reaching for a glass of pink punch on a nearby table and throwing it onto her.

Taisuke laughed after seeing Asuna gasp, the drink being spilled onto her front. He kept laughing, a few of the dances members laughing at her with him. He placed hands on his mouth to amplify his drunken voice, "Hey everyone! The School Queen's boobs are showing! Come check 'em out!"

She felt a tear slip out in embarrassment, before running outside with an arm over her eyes, salty water flying from them. Kazuto clenched his jaw, glaring at him, "Ishoyama. We were never friends if you can do something this selfish."

He just shrugged, downing his flask and hooting, "Come on everyone! There's no teachers! The night belongs to the only people who matter in this damned world!" A drunken fist was raised into the air, "Us! Teenagers!"

As everyone aside from Asuna's group of friends in the dance's corner cheered with him, Kazuto opened the door to the gymnasium, letting the light of the hallway enter the darkened room.

Asuna kept running through the school hallways, Kazuto following her in a sprint of his own. She stopped at a small window at the end of a hallway where the moonlight poured in, her run of shame ending as she stood by the window and cried into her hands. Kazuto came up to her and hugged her, "Hey. Hey hey hey, it's all right. It's all right."

"How can it?" She asked, crying into his black suited chest, "Everyone saw..." Asuna sniffled.

"It was just a drink of punch."

"I-I'm a class representative I can't have things like this to me."

"You'll be fine..." Kazuto whispered, seeing her eyes stricken with tears, "You're the smartest prettiest person in the whole school, you can figure it out."

"R-really?" She was held in his arms, "Y-you think so?"

"Of course I do. Even Ishoyama says so."

"But he's an idiot."

"He is but..." He picked up her hands, staring into her eyes, "I think so. I've never met anyone who cared so much about me. I've never met anyone who remembered so much about me. I've never met anyone who's been so kind to me, so genuine, so easy to talk to. Asuna, why did you threaten to kill him?"

Asuna looked up at him, wiping the tears off her face, "B-because I felt that way. Just the moment I saw that he was going to do that to you I wanted to hurt him. The second I saw you in trouble I wanted to protect you, I-I don't know what the feeling was. But I just had to make sure you were safe."

She stood up and wrapped her arms around his back, "It's just whenever I see you happy and safe, I feel happy and safe too." Asuna's face stood about a millimeter from his, whispering to him, "Do you like that I feel this way?"

"Of course I do how could I not?" He whispered back.

"Please kiss me Kazuto, or I might go insane."

He stood still, only two of four trains colliding in his head making him freeze. She opened her eyes, "Dammit fine, I'll do it."

"Hmm! Hm..." Kazuto yelped in surprise upon feeling her lips enclose over his, his black eyes flying open before closing peacefully. It was a strange rubbery wet feeling, one that he definitely was not used to. Yet he felt happy while sensing her soft lips rub and pull on his softly, a small bit of warmth raising in his heart.

She parted from his kiss opening her eyes, this time moving her hands from inside his and letting it be her turn. Asuna held his hands and sighed, looking down at her shoes, "Ishoyama will probably call my mother tonight. Odds are he'll do everything in his power to make my life hell."

"S-so what're you going to do? What're you saying?" Kazuto asked, opening his eyes.

"I'm saying that I can't go home tonight, not looking like this anyway." Asuna frowned, looking down at the punch drink that covered the front of her pink dress. A different look fell on her face, surprising Kazuto with her boldness, "Do you maybe...want to go to a motel with me?"

"What?!" He shouted, "Wh-wh-why would we go there?"

"Because I want to spend the night with you Kazuto."

He kept stammering, "B-but I-I...wh-what would we do there?"

Asuna shrugged innocently, fixing the black flaps of his blazer, "Who knows? Maybe we'll find out when we get there."

Kazuto shook his head, "Doesn't matter anyway. Neither of us have a car to get there and Ishoyama won't drive me anywhere even if his life depended on it."

"Well we can just call a cab can't we?"

He nodded, "Y-yeah. Yeah we could."

"Can I buy something special before we go over there though?"

"Sure."

...

Taisuke, the life of the party that became the dance, watched as Asuna and Kazuto walked out of the school hand in hand. When he saw this he was hit with a sinking feeling.

That nobody in their lives would do something so courageous with him.

Ishoyama Taisuke soon found himself leaving the dance with a staggering drunken walk, pushing the door to the gymnasium open with a hiccup. Taisuke was a very tall and robust fellow, but he'd consumed enough alcohol to barely even walk.

"Yeaaah! That rich kid really knows how to party!" Someone shouted, seeing him stagger outside assuming he'd vomit his brains out.

He sighed, knowing he was far too drunk to drive. Taisuke then shrugged, getting ready to call a cab to take him home, praying his rich morally orthodox parents weren't awake to witness their son disgustingly drunk.

Meanwhile Kazuto and Asuna went into the cab holding hands, the cab driver seriously concerned if he should be letting two minors do something so unethical, wondering if their parents were all right with this. In his rear view mirror he saw Asuna's face for a moment, and rubbed his nose contemplatively. But the man just took the money Kazuto passed him from his wallet and drove to where Asuna ordered him to do so.

A bald man smoking a cigar and reading a newspaper raised an eyebrow, seeing them enter his office, "Yes?"

"Hi we'd like to rent a room please." Asuna asked confidently.

He grunted against his cigarette, not even putting his newspaper down or looking at them from his feet raised on his desk, "That's just five thousand for the night I'm not a cheap bastard. Pick a key, we gotta lot of rooms available."

Kazuto placed the money on the desk as Asuna picked a key.

...

Soon the two of them sat side by side on a bed in the motel room. Kazuto rested his hands on his knees shyly, "I...I...what do people do in here anyway?"

"They make love." Asuna smirked against his neck, pressing her lips to it for a second before moving to his cheek.

Kazuto turned and met her lips with his own, kissing tightly for a moment, their arms wrapped around each other. However, it wasn't like the kiss they had at the windowsill back at the dance. There was something different behind it, Asuna was trying to open his mouth with her tongue, her grasp on his arm tight.

When he accepted and felt her suck seductively on his tongue, then biting his bottom lip for a second with a smirk, he could see how absolutely confident she was about doing this, but still asked anyway, "Hey...you sure you want this? If you want to back out now, I'll totally understand."

She shook her head before grabbing his upper body and forcing him laying on the bed with her, "That would be so cruel. How could I do that to you?" Asuna nibbled on his earlobe for a moment before growling in his ear, "Take your clothes off. All of them." She demanded.

Kazuto nodded, moving slowly to rise from their bed, walking to the window where moon light poured on him. He finished unbuttoning the knobs on his black shirt, before taking it off and revealing the pale skin of his lean chest. Kazuto unbuckled his belt and pushed his black slacks down his legs, before stepping out of them and standing almost naked in the moon light. Wearing nothing more than his underwear and a shy look on his face, Kazuto held his elbows sheepishly, "H-hey. It's your turn too now."

Asuna pulled her pink dress over her body and sat in her underwear with him.

Her lover broke away from her kiss and retreated into a shy position. He rested his black haired head atop his knees and murmured on a corner of their bed, "I-I'm so sorry. It's just I'm shy about this sort of thing."

She traced her thumb across his cheek, "Please don't ever act shy again Kazuto."

"Wh-why not?" Kazuto asked, looking up at Asuna.

"Because it's the cutest thing in the world, and I think I might just die if I see something so adorable again." She held his chin and kissed him, not feeling any vigor on his end of it, Asuna looked into his black eyes, "Kazuto, there's nothing to be worried about. I will always protect you, there's no reason to ever be afraid around me. The day I'd hurt you simply doesn't exist."

Kazuto nodded and laid on the bed with her, before Asuna parted her lips from his and whispered, tracing another thumb across his cheek, "If there is anyone who tells me that two weeks of getting to know you is too short to do this they're wrong. Because after spending so much time getting to know you, I've come to understand one thing about you, and this thing will stick to me forever...I love you Kazuto, more than anything in the whole world."

He nodded calmly, whispering against her lips as the moonlight from the window fell on their bed, "I know...and I would be lying to you if I said I didn't feel the same way...I love you Asuna. If there's one thing you've taught me it's to be open about my feelings, and I just...I love you so much."

While they kissed softly, Kazuto started to feel safer and less shy in her arms. He always felt happier around her, not pent up and on edge, like someone would always make fun of him when he was with Taisuke, but when he was with Asuna he felt safer, like a warm blanket had wrapped around him and swaddled him.

The airtight seal that was Kazuto's shyness and sheepish personality, built up by Taisuke's arrogance, became nothing more than a memory.

She pecked him sweetly on the lips and reached for the package she had bought earlier that night. After Asuna was finished withdrawing the prophylactic, they whispered that they loved each other once more, flicking the lamp near their bedside off.

When it ended two content naked bodies were laying beneath the white bed sheets, the moonlight shining on them and their eyes were closed. Their arms and legs were intertwined and they were laying their heads on the same pillow side by side, their faces inches from each other. Kazuto rolled over a little in his sleep, resting his nose against the bridge of Asuna's for a moment, before dreams let them slip away.

...

Kirigaya Kazuto was a very heavy sleeper, it took the crafty mind of one of Yojimi High's best students, Taisuke, to wake him up every morning for school. Even when the early morning's glowing rays smashed against his closed eyelids he still laid asleep. Taisuke had no idea that all he had to do was turn into a girl and lay underneath him, because that's all that it took to get him to burst awake.

His eyes flew open in an instant, gasping quietly while waking up and realizing that he'd slept on someone's collarbone. His surprise furthered when he realized that the most beautiful girl he'd met in his life was her, the same girl he'd dreamed about loving since the first grade. The memory of the dance, the dates and the past two weeks played like an old film in his mind, the film grain scratchy as a cats tongue.

Kazuto nodded to his own memories, understanding them, before raising himself, sitting up next to her while wearing nothing more than a smile. He held the right side of her sleeping face while thinking.

 _At school she's this awfully smart and serious class representative, but when I'm with her she's like the most charming energetic person. If I had known that all it would've taken was to confess my feelings sooner to become so close, so tender with someone so perfect and kind, I would've done it the moment my love sprouted from my heart. It never hit me but, how could I not be in love with her, how did it take me this long to realize it? How can anyone in the world admire someone for so long and not love them?_

 _More importantly, I feel like this is the happiest moment of my life, for I know that it is now my life's duty to make her happy and to become hers. For if this dream I call love is to become a reality, I must dedicate myself to her._

Feeling Kazuto's hand hold her face lovingly, Asuna woke up slowly, stirring before smiling up at him, "H-Hey." She murmured with a smile, standing up and resting her back against the wall of the motel room, "You hungry?"

"Not really." He sighed, rubbing his tired eyes, laying his back on the white wall next to her, sprawling his bare legs out on top of the covers, "I mean if you are, let's go get something but other than that I-"

Asuna giggled for a second, grabbing his bare body and forcing him to lay face first on the bed, forcing the back of his head into her white sheet covered chest, "You honestly talk far too much. Last night was a nightmare because of that."

"I-I was that bad?" He asked shamefully, murmuring sheepishly with a frown into the white bed sheet.

She nodded with a smirk, "Yup, you were awful."

Kazuto moved his head to look at her knowing she was kidding, used to being teased like this by the girl who held the back of his neck, "Why do you torture me like this Asuna?" He asked out loud, not murmuring against the sheets anymore.

"Because there's nothing sweeter than seeing you grovel at my feet like some sort of apologetic dweeb. It's the most fun I've had in a while seeing you just question everything you say to me when we go out on dates or at school." She made firm eye contact with him, "I'm...really sorry."

He raised both his eyebrows in shock, "What in the world do you have to be sorry about?"

"I'm sorry that I didn't notice your feelings sooner. I'm so sorry that it took last night to come so close to each other. You kept your feelings in for so long and I just-." Asuna stopped herself, "It doesn't matter now. Because after everything that's happened over the past two weeks I'm sure about one thing."

He blinked, sitting next to her on the bed and rolling a hand forwards, asking as to what exactly she meant.

"I want to stay with you Kazuto. Now and forever, because we love each other." Sitting next to him on their bed, Asuna cupped his face with a smile, "To see you act so sweetly and...human to me since we started going out, something just clicked inside my head. And I knew that you were the person I wanted to live forever with."

"That's fine."

"I-It is?" She asked in surprise, her amber eyes widening in shock, "You don't think its selfish? To keep you and make you mine so quickly?"

"It would be selfish of me to grab your feelings and throw them in a dumpster simply because you've become the most important thing in my life. No, you are not selfish Yuuki Asuna, you are the exact opposite of that."

"And what would that be?" She asked.

"The kindest most generous person I've met. Because I've never met a person to act so warmly towards me, and if it weren't for you I don't know where I'd be or who I'd be with. Probably no one who I should be with." They held each others faces before kissing for the quick moment, holding the back of each other's heads.

Their lips parted once more and they stared into each others eyes, saying nothing, letting silence stay true for just a moment while their hearts rolled around in their chests, soaking in warmth.

It was ended by a loud young man's voice, who burst into the room with a yell, "Where the hell have you two been?!"

Kazuto yelped in surprise, jumping off the bed and crouching to cover himself, "Who's that Asuna? I don't like him."

"T-Tsu? What're you doing here?"

"You know this person?" Kazuto asked, looking at her while crouching at their bedside to protect his naked body from his eyes.

She sighed, looking down at the bed, "This is Tsuboi Ryoutarou, he used to teach me piano when I was little. He knows my family well."

Ryoutarou walked over to her bedside, speaking to her, "Some cab driver called your parents this morning. Said he recognized you and your family from some low income charity event you attended a few months ago?"

Asuna sat pale, her face blank with expression as she knew what this meant. However, something struck her as odd.

 _The cab driver called them, not Ishoyama?_

"You are in bi-hi-hig trouble missy. The whole town's been looking for both of you for the past nine hours, your father alerted the police to bring you both home if you're found."

"What?" Kazuto shouted, still having his head hover from the side of the bed, "Why?"

"They've been worried sick why else, missing minors much? And they sent me over to collect you and then let the police know that you've been found. You must've turned your phones off because everyone who knows you two said you haven't responded to your text messages, calls anything! What the hell were you two thinking?" He yelled angrily, "There are people in this world who care about you two and need to know where you've been and what you're doing! People get scared out of their minds when you disappear from their lives so suddenly, how did you two run off without so much a whisper? A damned text message!? To your parents! Remember them? They tend to get scared when you don't show up at their homes!"

They looked at each other, "W-we..." Kazuto started, "We didn't think it would be so important, we weren't thinking about that when we decided to do this."

Ryoutarou sighed, "No I get it. You two are kids, freaking children that's why. I honestly don't blame you two for not thinking things through, had you been older, this wouldn't have happened." He looked to them, "I'd get dressed if I were both of you. I'll be waiting downstairs to take you two home." The man muttered, walking to his car.

He closed the door behind them and walked away muttering.

Kazuto looked to Asuna, "If you want me to go to your house and talk-"

"There's no need for that, I'll speak to them myself, this is my issue with them." She apologized, walking over to her pink dress with the purple punch stain on it and throwing it on herself.

"No we're in this together I-"

She cut him off with a kiss, rubbing his cheek while holding his chin, "I'm sorry. I need to handle them myself."

"And what? Feed you to the lions out of cowardice? What kind of person do you take me as?"

Asuna looked at him, "I think we both know we'd do anything for each other. That doesn't mean we can't be reasonable people."

"This is reasonable, I love you!"

"Kazuto...fine. Note that these aren't what you would call nice people, there's a reason I've been keeping you a secret from them."

"I don't care if they're aliens with blaster rifles, I'll speak to them with you."

Kazuto redressed himself and the two of them walked out of the motel room with messy hair and loose fitting clothes...but despite the looks they got...they still held hands proudly. Seeing them walk down the motel's concrete steps, Ryoutarou sighed, "Sorry for yelling at you two it's just...get in I'll explain."

They all piled into his old brown Toyota sedan, and Ryoutarou spoke while turning the engine on, "I initially refused to come pick you two up, I liked the statement you were making to society and all that."

"Uh...we're not making a-"

Asuna cut him off by pinching his thigh and making him groan in pain, still wearing a seatbelt over her punch stained dress, "Yes?"

"I refused, but your parents got angry and told me that I was still your caretaker, and this is what they paid me for back when I still worked for them. And the way they spoke to me, I didn't like it. It was if I was lower than them. I'm sorry for barking I..."

"Its okay Tsu." Asuna smiled weakly.

As he kept driving towards the Yuuki manor, a pit so deep sunk in their stomachs that they were sure nothing could ever fill it. But they both knew one thing: Real life was going to backhand them back down to reality from the little paradise they created together. The slap would be so hard they could possibly never get up again.

Approaching one's fate could be a terrible thing, but Kazuto just reached across his seat in Ryoutarou's car and held Asuna's hand, "At least we'll face 'em together right?"

A firm nod from her was all that Kazuto needed to know that this was going to be difficult. Really, really difficult.

...


	3. Chapter 3

**A Knight in a Suit**

...

Ryoutarou looked at them, parking the car in the round half crescent moon that was their driveway. He looked at Asuna, "Good luck. You're a strong girl you'll make it."

She just sighed, "These are my parents. You've met them."

Kazuto gripped her hand, "We've got this."

They walked out of the brown Toyota sedan, and Ryoutarou drove off sorrowfully.

The two young lovers felt like they were making a slow death march to an executioners block, but they still held each others hands the whole time. Servants bowed as they pulled doors open for Asuna, the girl walking to see a dreaded pair of faces in their dining hall.

A small fire crackled in the corner of the room, providing the only bit of light for the entire dining hall. Shouzou and Kyouko were perhaps the sternest looking people to have ever been born, sitting there side by side in their wooden chairs like blinking statues almost. Wearing simple yet formal clothes that appeared to have cost a lot of money.

Asuna sat down in front of them across the mahogany wooden table, taking Kazuto's hand confidently as she sat down to speak to them.

"Father I can ex-"

"I wouldn't." The man said calmly, "I truly am curious as to what you have to say. But I'll save ourselves some time from that won't we?"

His wife blinked, eyeing Kazuto coldly, "Did he have to come?"

"Yes mother he did."

"Foolish." Shouzou admitted, "Is this some sort of...rebellion? What have we done as parents to deserve this sort of treatment from our only daughter?"

"You haven't done anything wrong." Asuna spoke, "You two have been excellent parents. It's just I wished to spend the night with him."

"Really? By fornicating?" Kyouko asked, "Do you have any idea how you made us seem?"

"I'm sorry mother." She said looking down into her lap, avoiding her gaze.

Kazuto squinted at the brown haired woman across the table, "She doesn't deserve to be shamed."

"I'd stay quiet if I were you boy," Shouzou mumbled calmly, "And thank the heavens we haven't banned you from ever stepping foot in this house again."

"Yes and I'd.-"

"Oh a retort?" Shouzou leaned forward slightly, his room darkening gaze commanding so much respect that Kazuto became silent in seconds, "Thought so."

Kyouko gripped her arm rest, "This is how you repay us? By running off with this...low life?"

"Mother I only wanted to stay with him."

"Why again? We've offered you reams of eligible bachelors. Some of which, actually all of which are more eligible than him." Shouzou noted, "Why would you do this to us?"

"They never made me feel like how I've felt for Kazu." She declared proudly, gripping his hand tighter.

"Is that really necessary?" Kyouko asked in disgust, seeing their interlocked fingers displayed like some sort of flag.

"So you let emotions dictate your actions. Emotions, pah!" Her husband scoffed, "If I acted as irrational as you, I would've ran Rect Incorporated into the ground. I'm sure I'd be living like this peasant you're with."

"Would that be so bad?" Asuna asked.

Shouzou nodded, "Of course it would. It would be the cruelest fate for any man of noble birth. Now, can you give us an excuse as to why these actions are...excusable?"

"They were right." Kazuto and Asuna murmured together.

Kyouko sighed, "Asuna this is frankly absurd to say the least, you've known this boy for what? Half a month, if that?"

"I've known him for years mother, since first grade."

"Yes, you've been in the same class for years. That doesn't count as interacting or even speaking to him for years. From what the Ishoyamas have told me the boy is practically mute besides talking to their son."

"I'm right here. No need to reference me as 'boy'." Kazuto admitted, raising his shoulders for a second.

Shouzou nodded in agreement with his wife, "I think we'll address you as we think we'd like to adress you. Especially after you've defiled our daughter. Now-"

"I didn't defile her! She pushed me into doing it, and it ended up being the most emotional experience of my entire life."

"Well then she's cruel." Shouzou spoke calmly in his deep voice, "To have dragged you into such a thing when she'd knew it would never work. It's the equivalent of throwing a street beggar a piece of meat, only to tear it out of his hands when he's about to eat it."

"I wouldn't say that."

"Well then what would you say?" Shouzou asked Kazuto.

"I'd say she's the kindest person I've met."

"Well then I'd say you're a fool." Shouzou shook his head and breathed out exhaustively, "I apologize for the actions of my daughter, I honestly feel I've failed as a parent if I've allowed this to happen. If she truly cared for you she never would've started doing this...thing with with you, whatever it is, for the sake of not wasting your time. But children are always foolish."

Kyouko moved her gaze from her husband who finished speaking to her daughter, "Asuna, this goes without saying but this is the most irrational unprofessional relationship conceivable. And we've never been more disappointed in you in our entire lives."

Her husband nodded quietly in agreement.

She swallowed the lump in her throat, "It is?"

"What else would it be? This goes without saying too, but your punishment shall be given before you return to school on Monday." Her husband mumbled.

"Punishment?" Asuna asked.

"Of course," Kyouko shifted herself atop her seat, "Did you seriously think we'd let something like this happen again?"

"We're transferring you out of Yojimi and sending you to the best private school in the country. It's a nice place out in Shikoku, far from here. You will stay there for the remainder of your high school career and then we'll find you a proper husband, not him. You'll probably know whoever his is the same amount as him... well not exactly as well but probably just as well."

"Father you can't!" She screamed, trying her best not to cry.

"And why not? We are your parents and this is our decision. Could you expect another reaction from us? After all you've done?" Kyouko replied.

Seeing Asuna cover small bits of tears with her hands, moving it from his own, Kazuto frowned as Asuna stammered, "M-My parents are right. This was cruel, I'm sorry for wasting your time Kazuto."

"This...this..." Kazuto grunted, balling his fists before barking at them as he had no other way to say it, "This is bullshit!" He slammed his fists down on his armrests.

"Oh it is?" Shouzou asked as his daughter tried her best to hold the tears back, "Well, as much as I hate to use low class low cunning vulgar language, I must say this is indeed...not...what you said it is..." He trailed, not even bringing himself to curse in his own home, "I'm so sorry for how my daughter has treated you. It was disrespectful and cruel to lead you on like this only when she knew it would end in such a way. Now please, leave my household quietly."

Kazuto just sat there, a single tear running down his cheek as he gripped Asuna's hand that fell from her tears. Silence filled the room before it was broken suddenly.

"Uh sir..." The servant murmured, still poking his head inside the door, "Mr. Ishoyama is here to see you, says its urgent."

Shouzou sighed and rubbed his eyes, "Tell Rinzo I'll be with him in just a minute." He glared darkly at the two tearful teens in front of him, "This won't take much longer."

"It isn't Rinzo sir...it's his son."

Shouzou and Kyouko looked at each other in confusion, "Taisuke?" They both asked.

Kazuto and Asuna's tear stricken eyes met once more, seriously confused.

Shouzou nodded, "All right then. Tell him to enter at once please."

"Yes sir." The servant murmured, nodding and bowing, opening the wooden door to the dining room.

"My word!" Kyouko exclaimed, fanning herself and trying her very best to not look flustered in front of her husband.

An incredibly well dressed Taisuke entered the room, wearing his best formal attire possible. Due to the ludicrous wealth of his family, he was able to buy the best looking suit imaginable, his somewhat wild and untamed mess of brown hair trimmed down perfectly, and not a single hair lay on his otherwise unshaven face. Other than looking like the son Rinzo would always be proud of, Taisuke appeared to be one thing: A professional adult. Almost as if he'd aged three years in a single day.

Taisuke bowed perfectly like a true businessman would, "Mr and Mrs. Yuuki." He then walked to a very flustered Kyouko, picking up her fluttering hand and pressing his lips to it, "You look very beautiful Mrs. Yuuki."

"Th-thank you." The woman stuttered.

Shouzou saw this with a frown and grunted to the boy, "Might I ask why you are in my household Mr. Ishoyama?"

"To talk to you." The tall boy murmured as Kyouko calmed herself quickly.

He fixed his stiff posture on his wooden chair making it creak, seeing Taisuke switch sides of the table and stand behind Asuna and Kazuto's chairs, "And what are you here to talk to me about Mr. Ishoyama?"

"I'm here to you talk about love Mr. Yuuki."

Shouzou bunched his brown eyebrows together in confusion, "Love? What do you know about love boy? You've never even had a girlfriend before from what your father's told me."

"I used to know very little about it." He smiled to the boy who used to be his friend, seeing the tears sit there next to his black eyes, "Now I know a lot. And what do you know about love Mr. Yuuki? I mean, just look at your marriage."

"Excuse me?" Shouzou asked in surprise, "You come into my household and interfere with my affairs, and then question my marriage?"

"Forgive me, as I mean no offense." The boy bowed respectfully again, before rising with a shining smirk, "But I must say this as it seemed like your wife nearly blacked out upon seeing me."

Shouzou ignored the joke and eyed the clock above the fireplace, "Can you make this quick Mr. Ishoyama? I have a lunch meeting in an hour and I shan't be late."

"Time." Taisuke smiled and huffed some air out of his nose by snorting lightly, looking down at the same shoes that probably cost the same as an old bicycle, "Time is a funny concept. I used to think I had a lot of it... but then high school began."

Asuna's father bit his lip in thought.

 _I ask him to not waste my time. And then he proceeds to waste it..._

"The first thing I remember you telling me Mr. Yuuki, is that the reason I'm rich isn't because of what I did, rather what my parents did. And their critical wisdom in becoming rich was that they managed their small amount of time better than...what were your words again? Peasants."

"So what're you saying?" Shouzou asked, putting his hands together and resting them on his lap.

"That you were right. That we don't have a lot of time on this planet you know, none of us. Time skips forward so fast you could swear weeks become minutes! I remember playing that piano over there when I was only six years old, and now look at me, I'm on my way to inheriting a banking conglomerate. Mr. Yuuki, when my father's banking company is gone, and your tech company is gone, then what's left of us when we die?"

"Our legacy." The man said promptly, scratching his strong proud jawline.

"Exactly! And what is our legacy pray tell?"

Shouzou blinked, "Our children."

"Yes. And you're currently making your poor daughter miserable." He noted, raising a hand to indicate a quietly sobbing Asuna, "She's not even going to inherit your fortune or your company, you have Kouichirou for that, I've spoken to him before and he's more than qualified to run Rect Corp by himself!"

"Asuna's happiness is determinant on what her choices are. She made a very foolish mistake running off with this..." He eyed Kazuto in a cold squint of disgust, "Boy."

"Well then at least let them spend some more time together. Shouldn't you let a flower blossom before snipping its petals off and calling it a dead rose? While I woke up in my room last night, after having passed out from whiskey, I stared up at the roof of my bedroom. And then I realized that without Kazuto in my life I wouldn't have a single friend. Not. One. What kind of life would I have where I couldn't be allowed to have social contact with a single person? To strut about life talking to no one I cared about, treating business deals and meetings as some sort of idealized friendship. It would be one of pain would it not?"

Shouzou shook his head, "I'm sorry, but I have spent the past seventeen years turning Asuna into quality marriage material. I'm sure your father has done the exact same with you, just look at you in your perfect state of dress. I am not going to throw away the Yuuki names prized flower like some meat packer throwing an alley dog a rotting steak!" He ended his sentence strongly, not with a yell but a slight raise of volume.

Taisuke scoffed a little, looking to his side before meeting Shouzou's cold black eyes with his own striking orange ones, "But you're not. Who would you have her be with then?"

"Well, if I'm perfectly honest, someone like you. You have grades this boy could never dream to have, you're of the right background, and you're an incredible athlete of the right age and name. I'm sure you could provide what this boy could multiple times over, for my daughter of course."

The bankers son shook his head, "I've already said no."

Asuna and Kazuto whipped their heads to him, "What?" They asked in unison.

Kyouko nodded, "Indeed, we've offered you to Mr. Ishoyama here many times."

"Yet I always rejected her hand in marriage. Do you want to know why Mr. Yuuki?"

Shouzou nodded repeatedly, muttering in a cold voice, "Yes. Yes I always wanted to know why."

"Because I knew she would never love me. Since the moment we met we hated each other, on that piano bench that she pushed me off of, right here in this room. Why would I ever force her into something we would both hate?"

"Because it's right!" Shouzou snapped, making Asuna gasp as for the first time in her life she saw her father get agitated, "How do think the upper class has stayed the upper class for the past century boy? By not letting filth like him infect our bloodlines!" He snapped again, whipping his nose up to indicate Kazuto.

"Mr Yuuki..." Taisuke rested his hands on Kazuto and Asuna's shoulders, "Give me one good reason why these two should not be together."

"Because it's wrong!" Shouzou said coldly, standing up out of his chair, "You must realize Mr. Ishoyama, that Asuna belongs with someone like you, not dirty peasants! Exactly like him!"

"Hm...Is that so? So you'd rather have Asuna marry me then?"

"Of course I would."

Taisuke smiled weakly for a moment, "I'm not your average pretty looking rich boy Mr. Yuuki, I know this. I'm not what I seem sir, I can assure you of that."

"Really?" Shouzou sat back down again, "Then what do you really seem like then?"

"I'm abrasive and very selfish. I'm a nihilist and a bit of a pervert, one of the most petty people you'll meet. I can sing really well, but only when I'm drunk, which I tend to become the second I crack under emotional stress. I have no consideration for the well being or safety of others. Just ask Kazuto or Asuna here, I'm sure they can both attest to this. I also write scripts for dirty movies, and sometimes I steal hot dogs and food off the street, just because I like to. There are many other things..." He trailed, "But they are too vulgar for a professional conversation I'm afraid."

Shouzou chuckled suddenly, alarming his own wife and daughter, "Ishoyama Rinzo's only son is a degenerative sociopath that writes scripts for the indecent film industry." He chuckled again, "Preposterous. Absolutely preposterous." He scoffed, looking aside in disbelief again.

"I'm just the best case scenario for your daughter in terms of arranged marriage, what if I was really crazy and beat her and hurt her? What would you do then? Don't you have any concern for her safety or happiness? How can your own flesh and blood be nothing more than numbers on a piece of paper?! I mean good god sir, if our family names raise us above the 'dreck' of society as you so call it, then how can we treat our family members as cattle?!"

Shouzou said nothing, continuing to tap the table nervously.

Silence filled the room for a few minutes and Taisuke just brushed some hair off his expensive suit. The small clock in the room ticked above the fireplace, creating long shadows that stretched across the hall.

"Come on now Mr. Yuuki! We don't have a lot of time in this world, shouldn't we be doing the people we love?" Taisuke paused, seeing the look on Shouzou's face that turned slowly to him, "I-I mean the things we love? The things!? Being with the people we love? Living the lives we love? Surely there must be something beyond money here. We can't take it all with us, just the things that are important in this world, like the ones we care about. Like our children right?"

Shouzou shook his head, "You're not making any sense to me."

He drew a long breath, before speaking quickly, making firm eye contact wth Asuna's father the whole time, "I mean that when we're sitting in the ground. When we're dead. When we've passed away, and the only thing that remains of our bodies and our lives is rotting in the ground. The impact we've left on people, the lives we've created and the lessons we've taught, that's what's important. That! Do you really want your daughter to learn the lesson that she should marry me, someone she hates who will probably never give her an ounce of love in her lifetime, and stay away from someone who she adores? When you've died, do you truly want that to be your legacy? Your impact on this world?"

After Shouzou refused to answer Taisuke stared off into the crackling fire place, his orange eyes seeing the flames dance in the reflection of those tangerine colored orbs, "I learned this all last night. An old voice I thought I lost whispered kind words to me after I woke up from all the alcohol."

He stopped for another moment, still seeing the fireplace with his eyes and letting the clock tick for a moment, becoming the only sound in the room.

"If you still don't understand what I'm saying...then allow me to contextualize what I mean. After the dance, I felt horrible. So sad...and lonely...that I thought I was going to kill myself." Kazuto and Asuna whipped their heads to him in shock but he kept speaking regardless, "And I knew that something like this would happen when they left together, and that Kazuto would most likely do the same if Asuna one day had to leave him. I sat in an arm chair by the fire, and looking into it I thought, 'What did I do to deserve this?' And I knew the answer right away, I wasn't a good person, and I wasn't a good friend either. So I knew that I had to make it up to Kazuto, or I'd never forgive myself."

Everyone stayed silent as he kept speaking from the bottom of his heart, "Kazuto is the right man for Asuna. Why? Because they love each other. Key word there Mr. Yuuki. Love. Love is the answer. I spent the last two years of my life believing that physical attraction equated to a most deep of feelings...and for a moment...I knew that...Asuna became truly wiser than I ever will."

Hearing Taisuke finally act and speak humbly made Asuna smile a little through the tears, "She learned to love. She learned to follow her heart. And for that reason I will support them in the defense of their relationship. From now...until I'm playing a harp with my older brother up in the sky, and thanking him for whispering to me last night. And I'm sure that these two would be willing to die together if it meant they could find each other in another life. In that special place on the clouds where I'd pluck those golden strings. That inspires me. More than anything."

Shouzou tried to ignore his words but they pierced the air like lightning bolts, "This world doesn't exist without love. How can it? Without the love of my parents I turned to the love of my friend. Without the love of my friend I almost turned to suicide. I...am nothing without love, and neither are these two. I could die happily tomorrow knowing I brought these two together. In fact, I'd be willing to choke on my Miata's exhaust fumes till I croaked, if it means these two will spend the rest of their lives together."

"You're a fool then." Asuna's mother spat disgustedly, "Rinzo should be ashamed to have raised a boy who grovels to the most shameful and illogical of ideals. To have a raised a foolish. Addled. Imbecile. To die for something so stupid and pointless, to die for someone else? For a love that's not even yours?"

"Let him speak Kyouko." Shouzou murmured calmly, resting his head on his hands and looking at Taisuke deliver his speech, "Let him speak."

He nodded, continuing.

"For the longest time my only friend was Kazuto. And for the longest time, I believed that we were going to die alone...but at least we'd die alone together right?...So when I started to lose him over the past two weeks...I felt like I had lost a piece of my heart. And when he ran off with your daughter last night...I wished to take my own life, so at least I'd die with some dignity, so that if I was reborn I could have a friend in the next life. Another chance at not being arrogant or selfish. Another goddamn chance...was all I wanted. So that if there was indeed a heaven in this world... I'd at least be able to see my older brother again in another one." Taisuke looked up with a proud sparkling tear in his eye, "And I knew that suicide could've been an option. I was alone, no one was going to ever be with me. Friend or not. Because I truly felt like it was all my fault."

Kazuto frowned, "Taisuke I-"

"Quiet boy." Shouzou snapped again, ending Kazuto's interjections.

"That's just the thing isn't it Mr. Yuuki? The thing that's wrong? The mistreatment of others based simply on their class or name? You'll allow me to speak and deny Kazuto a chance to give his voice based on our upbringings?"

Kyouko tried to open her mouth but her husband shook his head.

"I know what's right. I know this because...I'd be willing to renounce my family name and die alone someday...if it meant they'd be happy together." Taisuke smirked, flicking the memory of his brother off his eye, "Love can't be shot down if it's right. Love is what truly allows these two to be happy, I'm sure they broke down in tears when you told them they couldn't be together. Love is the thing that has enhanced my life to the point where I don't just appreciate Kazuto for being friends with me...but because he truly wished to put up with me for years...and that must only be a respectful display of love. And...I think I love them both for inspiring me."

Shouzou said nothing, blinking as Taisuke then sniffled, allowing tears to run down his face, speaking out while choking, "E-Eshiro...Eshiro shot himself in the head. Eshiro shot himself." Taisuke paused, his voice breaking up, "B-Because he was going to be married off to someone he didn't know, and then his true lover couldn't stay with him ever again, father forbade it like you forbade Asuna's love. If there is a single reason in this world as to why you must keep them apart...then damn it it's wrong! If you're going to keep my Eshiro-nii-chan away from his lover then..."

Taisuke roared so loudly through his tears the whole house shook, "Then end my life! And send me up in the sky to see him again!" He kept yelling through his sobs, "Eshiro-nii-chan is my everything! Don't you dare steal him away from me for the second time! I can't stand it if I lose another loved one to the cruelties of this world! I don't know what I'll do! I don't know what I'll be!"

He bit his lip before barking at them again, "My older brother was the strongest person I ever knew! You could hit him over the head with a baseball bat, and it would be as if nothing had happened! But love drove his heart, and love forced him to take his own life, so that he could spare himself from a life where none of it existed! That's how I know love is that strong!"

The boxer forgot his high class dignity, swiping a hand across the air before making Asuna's parents freeze in fear of his strikingly strong words, "If you steal my Eshiro-nii-chan away from me, if you keep these two apart and force them to kill themselves, then I'll kill myself!" Tears flew off his face, "And if no one cares about my life then so be it! I never meant a thing to anyone anyway! At least understand that through all of it, out there in the valleys the hills, in the country, if a double shooting star strikes, or a single pair of strung fates spins my heart away, and that fate is ended, I will be crushed by it! If two hearts are touched by fate, then nothing can ever keep them apart! No matter how hard you try these two will never stay apart! Nothing can ever defeat that fated power, not laws, armies or even the higher ups of society like you two!"

He sniffled, continuing to yell, "The strong, the rich, the powerful, these people lord over us like gods, I know this because I was raised to be one of them, but these two will break through their will to get to each other! I've never been more sure of anything in my whole life! If you take my Eshiro-nii-chan away from me again... I will be nothing. Not my Eshiro-nii-chan, not my Eshiro-nii-chan! I beg of you not to kill him again!"

As the heir to one of the world's largest fortunes sobbed quietly into his hands for a moment, Shouzou just stared at him blinking calmly as Kazuto and Asuna sniffled as well, almost shattered at seeing their most masculine of friends cry.

He kept crying, wiping tears off his face that seemed to keep falling before speaking tall and proudly, "Eshiro died for an ideal that I wish he was alive to see now! My older brother stood for something that these two embody. The power of love against all odds. Huey Lewis wasn't wrong, he was right. The courage I saw last night at the dance shows that! To declare their emotions so openly, and to ignore the consequences of everything around them! And until my dying day I will not stop believing in that ancient power! It is my strength! It is my fist, my power! It is what I fight for! And if Eshiro were here right now he'd smack you both upside the head for trying to keep these two apart. How's that for logic Mrs. Yuuki? How's that for an ideal to grovel to? Are you going to insult my brother's memory again? Are you?"

Kyouko stayed so quiet it was if her mouth stayed frozen shut, same with Shouzou's, the boy speaking so eloquently it was if every brain cell he had had formulated the ultimate strategy: to convince by speaking from the heart and mind, a perfect combination of both so strong that it quieted one of the most powerful men in Tokyo.

The heir to the massive Ishoyama fortune stood so tall it appeared as though he could reach the sky and touch the two glowing fates that spun in his heart, "I won't stop fighting for that belief, my friends are all I have. I need nothing else, not the admiration from my peers, a lover, not even my father's money! The only solace I need in this entire world is to know that every string of fate will keep those that are meant to be together, together! Just look up Mr. Yuuki, we are all under the same starry sky, seeing the same fates strung! Could you exist without the love of your daughter? A true father, nay, a true person cannot exist without this string of fate called love! If you sacrifice that then you are nothing other than a robot who claims that wealth creates our happiness. Could you truly claim to be that person?"

Taisuke stomped his foot and it appeared the world shook under him, "No matter how hard you try I will not stop fighting for this. There are two halves to every whole, and well I probably will never attain to find mine...let these two strings of fate intertwine. I hold these two more dear to my heart than my own life, so please, don't forsake what my brother stood for. Don't forsake what I stand for, what Asuna and Kazuto stand for...what your flesh and blood stands for. If a cord of my heart was struck with me from these two, because of my own flesh and blood," The boxer raised a hand to indicate a sniffling Asuna, "Then by all means, please, for the love of your own daughter sir, a cord should be struck from yours."

Silence resumed as Taisuke blinked, his tears ending. He hadn't remembered crying that much in years, but he was so impassioned that he had no choice. "I've said my piece." He mumbled in his masculine voice, the last tear swept aside, "And I want you to say yours now. What defense do you have against my argument? So, what do you say now Mr. Yuuki?"

Shouzou sighed deeply, resting his arms on his chair, "Your words are...powerful. I shall not lie, you could be an orator." Shouzou met his eyes again and turned his gaze to him, "Truly, Rinzo has raised you well, and I can see your older brother shine through you, from what I remember of him. You know very well how to formulate an argument based on a good development of logic and emotion..."

But he shook his head, "But I cannot allow this relationship to happen. Not while I the Yuuki name exists. Not while I still have a bloodline to keep pure. Not while I still live and breathe will I renounce the ideals I was raised upon. I am bound to my own logic as you are bound to yours I'm sure."

Taisuke sighed too, his crying having ended only moments before, "I had a feeling you'd say that. That why I had a back up plan in case Operation Inspire didn't work out."

"Don't!" They all shouted.

Everyone at the table rose from their chairs, Shouzou, Kyouko, Kazuto and Asuna yelling loudly as it seemed like Taisuke was going to reach into his black blazer for a gun.

"Relax...Since money is the only language you seem to speak, I decided to becone fluent in it."

Instead of a pistol, Taisuke withdrew a large packet of papers and placed it on the table gently. The boy in the perfect black suit slid the packet across the table and Shouzou turned it around, his black eyes widening when looking into it.

"What is this?" Kyouko asked, seeing her husband flip through the large pamphlet of papers.

"It's the loan deal I've been trying to work out with Rinzo for years...where'd you get this boy?"

"My father gave it to me. Where else would I get it?"

"Hmm...no..." Shouzou gasped, reaching the final page and touching the ink in awe, his fingers above his business partner's name.

"Yes. My father has agreed to sign it. However, before you put your own name down, I'd check the fine print on Section 6 dash 1..." He smiled to Kazuto and Asuna, "I added a little something."

Shouzou obliged and read it aloud, his words rising in volume in combination with his shock, "I, Yuuki Shouzou, shall condone any relationship my daughter deems necessary?! Are you insane boy?"

"I'm a simple fellow." Taisuke shrugged, "If you strip these two away from each other you'll miss out on the largest business deal of your life. Father won't loan you a thing if you don't let Asuna choose her own path."

"But I...this is ridiculous." Shouzou bit his lip angrily.

Before digging his hand into his pocket and pulling out a pen, making Asuna and Kazuto gasp in shock and start to tear up in happiness.

"Fine!" Shouzou grunted, gripping his pen so tightly it almost broke under his fist, "Fine! Fine! Fine! There!" He grunted again, throwing the pen down on his signature, "You can all waste my time on another day then!" He fixed his tie with a clenched jaw, glaring at Taisuke angrily, "Now if you'll excuse me, I have a lunch meeting to get to. Good day Mr. Ishoyama." The man spat.

"Oh Mr. Yuuki?" Taisuke noted before he left, turning to him.

"Yes?" The man asked with a defeated sigh.

"It was a pleasure doing business with you." The boy added with a smirk.

"Don't ever come to my house again Taisuke. I'm sure you'll run your father's banking business like a chicken with its head cut off, after doing something as illogical as this." Shouzou said thinly through gritted teeth, leaving in a huff, disgustedly watching Kazuto and Asuna hug as he walked off.

Kyouko stood up out of her chair, "Ishoyama Taisuke. Why would you ignore my daughters hand and avoid a life of eternal wealth? Of perfect children and success?"

Taisuke smiled for a moment, "Because I am not part of the same whole as Asuna. That half belongs to another, I know this. They belong to each other, if they were willing to defy me, someone of such strength and skill, then they must be truly brave. That courage has inspired me, their actions are so pure and human that nothing else in this world, not even money, can be able to drive my actions regarding this decision of mine. My brother's spirit shall haunt me for the rest of my life if I don't do what he stood for, especially since I know it's right."

"You're a fool. And if you're willing to spend your life around low life trash then you're the greatest fool of an Ishoyama to ever live." Kyouko frowned down her nose at him.

"Yes, I'm sure no man in my families history had the balls to pull something so selfless. I'm sorry Mrs. Yuuki, I think I might start being friends with your daughter from now own, and I don't think she's low life trash. She's the smartest and kindest person I know."

Ignoring Taisuke's classic snark, Kyouko left after her husband, scowling under her breath, "Foolish children."

The boy in the perfect suit bowed respectfully before leaving, not even saying goodbye to Asuna and Kazuto who cried out of happiness in their hug.

They parted for a moment, thinking.

Asuna frowned, "Are we forgetting something?"

The two of them gasped and looked at each other, "Taisuke!"

Feet pattered as Asuna and Kazuto sprinted towards the half moon crescent that was the Yuuki Manor's driveway. Still wearing their dress clothes from the dance before, Asuna's dress still wearing the punch drink stain and Kazuto's suit still ragged, they ran as fast as they could to talk to him before he left. Hall ways with long glass mirrors showed their bodies flying as they ran towards their recently reacquainted friend.

"Taisuke!" They shouted, running towards him as he took his keys out of his pocket. Taisuke made the Miata chirp as unlocked it, but Asuna and Kazuto turned him around, "Taisuke!"

"Guys..." He groaned.

"Oh wait we can't use your given name right?" Asuna gasped.

He shook his head, shifting his foot on the ground for a second, "You can use it...for a week. Or for this semester...or the rest of our lives." Taisuke sighed, smiling for a moment.

Kazuto looked at him, "Everything you said in front of them...was it all true?"

"Nope! It was all a joke byeee!" He smirked, turning around and trying to walk away but Asuna's hand shot out, grabbing his shoulder.

"We're serious Yama-Tai."

He nodded solemnly as they gasped, "Taisuke..."

"I'm fine guys really." He muttered, looking up at them, "I'm sorry for acting like an ass at the dance yesterday. If you two want to ignore me for the rest of the semester then that's okay...I'm sure that dress wasn't cheap." He noted, seeing the punch stain was still there.

Asuna shook her head, "No. How could we do that to you? That would be awful of us to do. We thank you for what you've done, and now we wish to be friends once more! You said no one cared about you, but that's not true, we care about you!"

As Kazuto nodded in agreement, the tall boy moved his eyes from the tops of the heads to their eyes, onyx and amber alike, "Guys, you two really should just let me go my own way."

"Forget that." Kazuto declared, "Your brother. If he was alive man, he'd hug you so hard your ribs would break."

Taisuke nodded, "I know. A hug from Eshiro is the only thing I miss from elementary school." They kept smiling at him, but he just sighed, "Guys you don't need me, I don't need you, just let me be an asshole in peace. Honestly you think I need you? I-" They cut him off with a hug, making him gasp and cringe, "What're you doing? No! Ugh! Guys this is gross no stop it! No...no! No...No!" Taisuke groaned raising his arms in surprise, being half a head taller than both of them.

"We love you Taisuke." Kazuto joked, wrapping his arms around his back.

"We are never letting go." Asuna whispered, smirking into the rich material of his chest, hugging him tightly.

"Guys this is gross no!...I'm not kidding you're ruining my suit and it cost a lot of money!"

"How?" Kazuto smirked while hugging him.

"You two still smell like you did it." He admitted, making them jump off him and brush their own clothes from the dance wearing red faces. Taisuke smiled, "I'm glad you two can be together now. I finally feel...whole."

"But you're not." His shorter friend shook his head.

"Yeah you need a girlfriend." Asuna nodded, catching onto what her newly legitimate lover was saying.

"No, nothing's changed, I'm still the same narcissistic, nihilistic, sarcastic prick you two love to hate. I don't need to be anybody's all right? Plus who'll date me?"

"Well then what was that whole speech about love? Huh, huh?" Asuna smirked, poking her elbow into his stomach.

"I'd call it...enthusiastic rhetoric." He admitted, pulling a serious look like someone of his class would, fixing his red tie.

Kazuto smiled, "Hey man, if you ever feel lonely, just look at that starry sky you talked about. Someone, somewhere is looking right at it too I'm sure...Or you know, just write another one of those scripts." He winked jokingly.

"I never said that, that was just rhetoric! Nothing's changed, I won't have anyone like you two will!" Taisuke shouted, turning around and refusing to show an unprofessional blushing face, raising a finger into the air, "I'll fly solo till I croak watch me! I'll still be the same person at school on Monday! Again, nothing's changed!"

"Everything's changed!" Asuna laughed in a happy tone, throwing a hand off her shoulder towards him as he walked to his Miata.

When he turned around, and Kazuto could've sworn there was another manly tear in his eye, "Thank you two so much for inspiring me!"

"No problem Yama-Tai." Asuna smiled.

They held hands as Taisuke started to drive away in reverse gear, but he just smiled and poked his head out of the car, "Hey guys?"

Kazuto and Asuna turned around, pausing their walk back to her home, "Yes?" Asuna asked.

"I wouldn't do it again, just for a few weeks, let all your folks settle in for a moment."

"No promises!" She joked, reaching behind her and grasping Kazuto's black slack wearing bottom, making him gasp while the four bullet brain train crash built in red faced surprise.

After he drove away, they held each others hands and Asuna spoke, "Kazuto, can you promise me something?"

"Let me guess, you want me to stay with you forever?"

"H-How'd you know?" Asuna gasped.

"Because I was just about to ask the same thing." He kissed her for a moment before whispering against her lips, "Yes. Now and always." They hugged, embracing each other tightly before shedding victorious tears of joy onto each other shoulders.

"Wh-why are we crying?"

Kazuto laughed through his tears, "Because we won! There isn't a single thing in this whole world that'll keep us apart now!"

She nodded in agreement with a bright smile on her face, laughing and crying with him, her heart racing out of her chest still wearing the punch drink stain, the midday's rays shining on them.

...

Their friend had meanwhile driven all the way to the cliffs above the ocean. He had parked his Miata in behind the guardrail, hearing the waves crash against the cliff below, located somewhere north of the city.

An empty flask smelling of aged whiskey was tossed into the rocks below from the boy above, sinking deeper into the dark abyss of the sea.

Taisuke started scrolling through a social media web page on his smartphone, when he came across a picture his friend Kazuto had posted a few minutes before. Him and Asuna had decided to smile at the camera and take a picture using Kazuto's phone, and he stuck his tongue out at the camera with his eyes closed, his cheeks burning red as Asuna kissed one of them when he snapped the picture.

Obviously Kazu-crashes could still exist in this world, after all, they were to spend the rest of their lives together.

The tall rich boy smiled like a small child witnessing the opening of his favorite birthday presents, "Aw...so sweet."

He instantly decided to downvote the post and submit a meme filled troll comment not five seconds later. Just to mess with them and say, "Wrecked."

Suddenly a notification at the top of his screen pinged. It was a message from his father Rinzo, which read:

Taisuke. I am very proud of the decision you have made. Please note that you will be meeting her and her parents tomorrow at 17:00 sharp. Our home, wear your best formal attire. The engagement rings will be presented to you two, and you will find the forms you need to sign for business school attached below in a PDF file. You are now truly ready to become the next owner of my company and my fortune. You are now finally part of the Ishoyama family for once.

-Thank You. Ishoyama Rinzo.

He just sighed, "Well, I guess pro boxing is out of the equation. Oh well."

The tall boy knew he shouldn't complain. He could have all the money in the world, a rich wife, and Asuna and Kazuto would be dating each other, still friends with him the whole way. If he needed anything more than that he simply did not know what it would be. And for the girl he just sold himself like a cheap piece of meat to, well he'd have to love her no matter who she was, or what her family name was. That or...embrace a painful ideal.

He'd have to throw his whole heart into loving this girl he'd never met but had to marry, otherwise he might succeed in being the greatest hypocrite of all time.

The decision was made. And he knew the decision was right. Taisuke knew this as he stared out over the ocean, his proud orange eyes becoming lost in the horizon as he put his foot up on the guardrail, his perfect extravagantly expensive suit rustled by the light wind.

His new well kept short brown hair became tossed by the wind as well, as he continued to think and stare out over the ocean contemplatively.

There was no other choice really. To be an owner of one of the world's largest banking firms, one needed to be flexible. Taisuke just hoped he didn't bend himself so far he broke.

If anyone at school would look at Asuna or Kazuto funny and gossip behind their backs about hooking up so quickly, Taisuke would just flex loudly and crack his boxing missile like knuckles in their direction, Soviet Orchestra Speech at the ready. If anyone made fun of them, he'd flame his or her entire social media page anonymously after hurling trash at them. If they ever needed help on an assignment he'd give it to them.

If Asuna ever scored higher on an assignment than him, which would definitely happen a lot that semester, he'd just shrug and laugh it off. If Nokine or any basketball jocks tried to push them around he'd be there, iron like fists at the ready.

Every single aspect of Asuna and Kazuto's decision had consequences. The judgement from their peers, the judgement from their parents, their society. What had Taisuke done? He had literally fixed all of it for them himself.

Why? Why would Ishoyama Taisuke, one of the most selfish and arrogant people on the planet do this for his friends?

Exactly for that very reason. Because they were his friends.

Taisuke remembered a very important lesson about friends on that piano, only eleven years before...

There were two six year olds playing the piano in the dining hall of the Yuuki Manor, Asuna smiling as Taisuke sat next to her, playing notes with her. Shouzou and a middle aged stern looking Rinzo watching with biting teeth, knowing their futures depended on this union.

"You suck at playing notes!" The little brown haired boy taunted, trying to play faster only for Asuna to glare at him.

"Faster isn't better!" She whined, crossing her small arms and huffing.

He smiled and turned around to Rinzo, "Papa? Do I play piano better than Asuna?"

The man looked to his business partner that stood biting his nails nervously next to him, "Uh...yes perhaps son."

"Ha! I knew it, I'll always beat you at everything! Waaagh!"

Asuna pushed the little boy off the piano bench in anger, making him bawl and run to a tall young man of about fifteen, "Onii-chan! Onii-chan, Asuna's being mean to me!" He whined while hugging his pant leg, looking up at him with tears in his eyes.

Eshiro brushed his brown bangs aside and sighed, kneeling to put his hands on his brothers smaller and less broad shoulders, "What did you do Taisuke?" He asked in his kind deep voice that sounded exactly like Taisuke's when he was older.

"Nothing! I just said the truth about how I played piano better and she pushed me off the bench!"

His older brother smiled and looked into his eyes, blue meeting orange for a moment before he pushed his lips to his forehead and made eye contact once more, "Taisuke, you probably did something to anger her. Your friends define who you are, don't ever push them away. Let their love empower you little brother."

"But I hate her for pushing me! She's being a meanie!" Shouzou and Rinzo face palmed as the six year old kept stomping his foot on the hardwood floor in a little temper tantrum, "I hate her! I hate her! I hate her! And I will never want to be friends with her for pushing me!" Little six year old Taisuke ran crying to Rinzo's pant leg, "Papa! Papa! Let's go home! I don't ever want to come here again!"

"But I..." He looked to his business partner who gave him an apologetic nod.

"Sorry, but maybe it's too early to decide. This won't affect the loan deal won't it?" A younger looking Shouzou asked hopefully.

Rinzo took his youngest son's hand with a cold frown, speaking in the same calm masculine tone as all Ishoyamas did, "Yes it will, that daughter of yours seems like a rebellious one by the way. Let's go Eshiro." He ordered, making the boy sprint to his side like some sort of lap dog.

And then eleven years later, that very same little boy had grown up and learned, finally listening to words from years past, an alcohol induced hangover creating a whisper of an imagined ghost. He stood at the guardrail thinking.

He decided to mutter a few words as the wind rustled his brown hair, wearing closed eyes, the boy started to speak to it, "I closed my eyes in this world of robotic logic and deprivation, hoping to wake up in one of love. The result sung true, thank you for what you have taught me Eshiro-nii-chan. No matter where my other half may be in this world, I will be searching for her."

Taisuke smiled, still closing his eyes as the wind tossed his brown hair about, "I love you Eshiro-nii-chan." He whispered to his brothers spirit.

He opened them onto the Pacific Ocean smiling as brightly as the sun that shone over it.

...

 **The End.**

...

 **Japanese to English (Vice-Versa) Index:**

Mr Ishoyama: Ishoyama-san

Mr. Kirigaya: Kirigaya-san

Ms. Yuuki: Yuuki-san

Mrs. Yuuki: Yuuki-sama

Mr. Yuuki: Yuuki-sama

Eshiro-nii-chan: Big Brother Eshiro

Little Brother: Ototo

Onii-chan/Aniki: Older Brother

I love you: Aishteru

Goodbye: Sayonara

Thank You: Arigatou

...


End file.
